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Chapter Text

Thor had done it, he had defeated Thanos just before he could snap his fingers and end half the universe. He had wielded his newest weapon, the Storm-breaker, right into Thanos head. Killing him instantly and turning him into a pile of ash. Leaving the gauntlet laying on the floor.

The remaining Avengers on earth were scattered all over Wakanda, including some new avengers from space. The talking raccoon and the tree, who had arrived with Thor during the Battle of Wakanda and helped defeat the aliens are now discussing how they were getting out of that planet to meet with Gamora, Peter, Drax and Mantis. They hadn't heard anything from them since Rocket and Groot left with the pirate angel to get the magical axe. Rocket hoped they were all okay.

Meanwhile King T'Challa was helping out his people, tending the wounded and making sure everyone who survived was alright. He started by making sure his little sister, Shuri, was unharmed. When he saw she was fine, he started worrying about the rest. He knew he was supposed to put his people first, but his sister would always come first. No matter how annoying her meme references were.

Sam, Bruce, Rhodey and Natasha were wandering around Wakanda, making sure there was no more injured people waiting to be found. That's when they found Wanda, she was on top of Vision's body, crying her eyes out. The poor girl didn't deserve this. Having to kill her love, watch him die, then come back to life just to be killed all over again.
Natasha was the one who approached her, she calmly tried to convince her to go to get her injuries checked. Nat was sure the witch had internal bleeding and probably something broken, seeing how Thanos ha thrown her away from Vision with his gauntlet. Wanda didn't want to leave what remained of Vision. Eventually, she let go of Vis's dead body with tears streaming down her face. Sam and Bruce helped her to the main building, where the were wounded were being treated. Natasha went with them and Rhodey continued flying around looking for more people who needed help.

Steve and Bucky were taking the gauntlet with the Infinity Stones to Wakanda's vault, to keep it safe until they figured out what to do with them. They obviously couldn't destroy it and none of them had the strength to carry an infinity stone. So separating the stones wasn't an option.

Steve was worn out, having fought Thanos on his own was more tiring than it seemed. However, he couldn't be happier now that it was all over, especially knowing his best friend, Bucky was alright. He hadn't had much time to talk to him, since Bucky had to be put under cryo again in Wakanda. That didn’t stop him from seeing him, having met a few times during the past few years. Steve never could stay very long. He couldn't risk putting his friend in danger, after all he was a fugitive now. But, Steve knew that after all this was settled, he had earned some sort of long vacation with Bucky.

"So," Bucky said with a grin on his face, carrying the gauntlet with his metal arm. "You were finally able to grow a beard, tell me, how does it feel to finally hit puberty?"

"Shut up you jerk" Steve said smiling, walking next to him towards the vault.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until Bucky decided to speak.

"Well?" Bucky said after a while, Steve gave him a confused frown "Are you keeping it? The beard?" He asked as he changed the gauntlet from the metal arm to his other arm.

Steve pondered for a bit, "I think so, I've grown attached to it after this time, why? Don't you like it?" Steve finally responded, running his hand through his beard.

"I think it suits you, Stevie" Bucky said with a smile, the smile that Steve loved and hadn't seen in a while.

_______

Quill had said he could take the earthlings back to their planet. They gladly accepted and in no time the Guardians, Tony, Peter, and Strange were limping their way to the Milano. Peter had an arm around Tony's waist helping him stand. He wasn't in a good shape after Thanos had stabbed him with his own weapon. Drax was helping Mantis while Nebula helped Stephen. They were all angry at Stephen, until he explained why he gave up the stone. Drax promised he wouldn't kill him, and that was good enough for the wizard.

Once in the Milano, Peter was in awe. Even though he had already been in a spaceship before, he was baffled by it. This was so much cooler than the squidward's ship. Tony, even though he would never say it aloud, was also loving it.

"This is the coolest spaceship ever!" Peter's eyes widened and smiled like a child in a candy store.

Quill laughed "See, this kid right here has some good taste, and we even share a name!" He ruffled his hand through Peter's hair and walked towards his seat to start the ship.

Drax sat in the chair next to Quill's and Mantis. While Nebula disappeared from view as soon as she reached the ship. Stephen, Tony and Peter were left awkwardly standing near the door. Tony and Peter looked at each other confused, not knowing what do do or where to sit.

"Relax, take a sit, might be a long ride, considering we are 56 jumps away from earth. And we can't do more than 4 at a time, it might take a few days to reach earth." Quill said, not explaining to the earthlings what did he meant by that.

Tony, was too exhausted to care and took a seat. Peter looked at his mentor and did the same. Stephen was about to ask, but decided otherwise and simply took a seat as well.
The awkward silence surfaced almost immediately. Peter being the talkative one was the first one to break the silence. For someone who just fought a giant super-powered grape, you'd think he'd be beyond exhausted. He was in a spaceship! In space. For Peter, being exhausted would have to wait.

"So, Mr Star- Mr Lord- Mr. StarLord, how come you're from Earth? But are in Space?" Peter asked in his high pitched voice, as he usually did when he was nervous.

Quill laughed at the name with pride, "Well, my mom was from earth, and my father was kind of a god. He sent this guy— Yondu, who became my father figure— to kidnap me after he killed my mother with cancer. Which I didn't find out about, until not too long ago. Yondu never brought me to my father, who was basically going to murder me by using my power. Yondu adopted me so then I became an outlaw, then saved the universe by dancing." He responded, blabbering a bit too much. As he always did. Maybe it was a Peter thing.

The rest of the Guardians groaned in annoyance and rolled their eyes at that story. Quill never seemed to stop talking about it. Peter on the other hand was both shocked and amazed at his life story. Tony and Stephen were asleep, not caring to listen to anything Quill said.
Peter continued to ask endless questions to them. Like 'how does your antennas work Ms Mantis?' 'Are they birthmarks or tattoos Mr Drax?' 'How did you get that awesome hand Ms Nebula?'. The Guardians answered all the kid's questions, feeling fondness for the young earthling. Until Peter couldn't take the exhaustion anymore, and fell asleep in the middle of his interrogation. The guardians smiled fondly at the sight, laying a blanket over him. They all tried to stay as quiet as they could, shockingly even Drax. Trying not to wake Peter, he needed to rest.

_____

Four days had passed since The Battle Of Wakanda and the city looked like nothing ever happened. All the houses and buildings were rebuilt, the people who survived were recovering at quick rate thanks to Shuri's inventions. As a protect measure, they enforced the protective barrier around the city. They even rounded up all the alien corpses to burn them in a pile.
Everything was fine.

The Avengers were currently staying at T'Challa's home. Because they were so many of them, they had to share rooms. Natasha shared a room with Wanda, helping her with the nightmares and the trauma she had experienced. Steve and Bucky shared a room, because Okoye paired them together. She had also organised their room, meaning she only put one bed. Ignoring Steve and Bucky  'complaints' She had also forbid from T'Challa doing any arrangements on that room. Natasha practically cracked up laughing, and high fived Okoye when she found out.
Bruce, Rhodey and Sam were accommodated in another room. Thor, Groot aka the “tree” and Rocket stayed in another room. The Raccoon and Tree said they were staying until Wakanda didn't need anymore of their help. Wakanda had done so much for Earth and they wanted to help them.

______

The Avengers hadn't had much time to catch up with each other. It had been more than two years since some of them even saw each other. Knowing this, T'Challa organised a dinner with all of them to celebrate their victory. Allowing the Avengers to finally relax and bring each other up to speed.

They were all at the palace, around a giant dinner table in fancy but comfortable clothes. T'Challa was in one end of the table, on his right was Shuri, who had begged him to be there. Natasha next to Shuri, followed by Wanda and Bruce. Then on the other end of the table was Thor, followed by Rocket, Groot, Steve and Bucky. Dinner had been served and everyone starting to dig in, chatting away while they ate their meals. Everyone except Wanda, who was eating in silence looking down at her food.

Natasha was the first one to ask about Bruce and where the hell he was for the past few years. He explained how he went to space, where he bumped into Thor and Loki— who at the end wasn't that bad and ended up saving everyone on Asgard. Although the Avengers still didn't like him, they all gave Loki a minute of silence. Thor greatly appreciated it. Bruce then had asked what was the deal with half the Avengers not talking to Tony. Causing them all to immediately stiffened up, especially Bucky and Steve.  Steve explained what he did, and what Tony did, disappointing Bruce in process. Banner told them they should have stop being stubborn for a second, and they could have solved a bunch of problems. That conversation led to a another, and they talked about Tony, no one knew where he was or what had happened to him. Some of them assumed he was dead, and some thought if he was alive, he was definitely not on this planet. Then Rocket was talking about something involving Bucky's arm, when Shuri heard it she laughed and told him she could make him an arm like that. Now that he didn't have to steal Mr Barnes arm, Rocket gave her a victory smile. Meanwhile Groot was talking to Thor, who didn't say much. Instead Thor was eyeing everyone as if he was making observations and taking mental notes.

_____

It was getting late, dinner was to be coming to an end when the alarms started to sound. T'Challa stood up immediately, and headed to the other room to see what was going on. The rest of the avengers followed suit.

—

T'Challa entered the room and crossed his arms on his chest, saluting everyone.

"What seems to be the problem commander?" T'Challa asked, looking at the screens.

"A spaceship seems to have landed near the border my king" the commander explained. "Do we blow it up?"

Before T'Challa could answer Rocket pushed his way through the avengers towards the Wakandan king.
"STOP! Don't blow it up! I know that ship, that's Quill's." Rocket climbed Bucky's shoulder and was looking at T'Challa in the eye.

T'Challa nodded and gave the signal to send a jet to take them to the border. All the avengers, except Steve decided to stay at the facility so they wouldn't overwhelm Rocket's friends.

In just a few minutes, they headed out to the spaceship.

_______

The barrier started opening, allowing the guardian’s to see the city. Rocket and Groot were waiting in the front of the jet for any sign of Quill and the rest of the team. T'Challa and Steve were behind them with a few warriors, 'just in case' T'Challa had said.

When the barrier opened completely they could see the Milano door opening and could hear some banter between Quill and someone else.

"Well, I am not staying here in the middle of nowhere with only trees around. I trusted you into getting somewhere safe, not-" Quill stopped talking when he saw the barrier open and the whole town behind it. His mouth fell open.

Rocket immediately ran to him.

"Quill, where have you been?" Rocket said as he was ran towards the ship, Groot close behind him.

"Rocket? Groot?" Quill said surprised, getting off the Milano and walking to them. "How the hell did you two end up here?"

"We arrived with the pirate angel, we thought you were dead!" Rocket said, as Groot hugged Quill.

"I am Groot"

"Greetings" The wakandan king interrupted, "I am T'Challa, king of Wakanda, I take you are friends with Rocket. You are free to stay here as long as you need"

"Tha-" When Quill was going to answer but all eyes shifted to the ship. As Tony walked out with a very sleepy Peter next to him.

"Mr Stark"
"Tony"

T'Challa and Steve said simultaneously, surprised to see him alive. They weren't going to ask about the kid just yet. Kind of too busy processing that Tony was alive.

"Hey, nice seeing you all after, what was it? two years. It's all great, really, but can I get some help here? I have a stab wound made by the ugly grape and a sleepy teen who I'm basically carrying." Tony said in his usual tone.

"S'rry Mr St'rk" The boy said sleepily, not making any effort to move away from him.

Steve immediately went to help them.
Volunteering to carry the boy, who was far too tired to complain about being carried by Captain America himself. While T'Challa helped Tony. Shortly after, all the guardians, Stephen, Tony and Peter, were all safely in the jet. Heading back towards the palace. Introductions would have to wait.   

Chapter Text

The next day, Peter woke up to unfamiliar surroundings. He was in a big room, in a very big, comfortable bed. Next to a window, where he could see there were buildings, many trees and green vegetation. The thing was, Peter currently had no memory of how he had arrived to wherever the hell he currently was. He started to remember fragments of the previous day, then it all became clear, how he had been in the Milano, how he had arrived to earth. Tony said they were going to Wakanda, so that’s probably where he currently was. He had been very tired, and then he remembered how he had basically fallen asleep in the arms of Tony Stark. Then got carried by Captain America. Great , he thought.

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed someone was standing in the door frame of the room. That someone happened to be Tony. Peter smiled at the sight of his mentor and sat up, crossed legged in the bed.

"Mr Stark! Good morning" He cheered. waving at him happily.

"Hey, kid, slept well?" Tony asked, not moving from where he was standing, looking at the kid straight in the eye. A small smile appearing on his lips.

"Uh, yeah, slept well, great actually." He answered, before changing the subject, "Hey, Mr Stark, where are we? Are we in Wakanda? I remember you saying we would be going there, but I don't remember much of when we arrived yesterday." he said sheepishly

Tony looked at him with an amused expression. "Yes, we are in Wakanda, kid, we arrived yesterday and T'Challa, you've remember him right? You fought him a few years back. Well anyway, we arrived and he gave us places to sleep. Steve Rogers had to carry you here, since you were that tired. I couldn't carry you with a half open stab wound. But it's all good now." While Tony was doing his rant he walked to the kid's bed and had sat down.

"So my second time meeting Captain America and I had to be falling asleep in his arms, that's just great" Peter said to himself. "How is your stab wound, Mr Stark?" He finally asked.

"Kid, last time I'll tell you this, call me Tony. And the stab wound is all healed now." He said, lifting his shirt to show Peter there was no wound or scars left.

"W-what? But yesterday- how?" Peter stumbled over his words, very confused. He had just seen the stab wound yesterday and was nowhere near being completely healed. Tony had managed to make it stop bleeding with a upgraded version of the web fluid he usually used.

"T'Challa's sister, Shuri, you will like her, she is a genius. She invented these gadgets to help speed up healing, fixing injuries completely. So that's why I'm good as new." Tony said, standing up and adjusting his shirt that had been wrinkled when he sat down.

"Wow Mr- Tony, I rarely hear you calling someone a genius." Peter told him teasefully. He really needed to meet this person Tony was talking about. It's not everyday Tony Stark calls someone a genius.

Tony gave the kid a scoff and an eye roll.  Heading towards the door, continuing to talk to the kid as he was leaving. "You should shower and change, everyone wants to meet you."

"They want to meet me? wow, Mr- Tony, that is awesome! L-let me go get ready." Peter said excitedly, he was meeting everyone, and this time he could properly meet some of them since they weren't at war anymore.  He was getting some clothes Tony left him when he stopped. "What time is it?"

"You slept till noon, kiddo, it's currently 4 in the afternoon." and with that, the man left.


________

Peter had never gotten ready so fast in his life, he had been jumping on the walls grabbing his few things and making sure he was well dressed. After all, he was going to meet all the Avengers! AND the king of Wakanda! He knew he shouldn't be that excited because technically, he had met them all at some point. Scarlet Witch, Captain America, the Bucky Barnes, King T'Challa, Black Widow and T'challa's sister, who was around his age. He couldn't wait to meet all these people. After he calmed himself a bit, so he could look relaxed and professional. He walked outside his room where there was a guard who told him where he had to go. He thanked them and made his way through the building.

Arriving at a big room, which looked like a living room combined with an office. It looked really cool to the teen. He visibly swallowed when he thought the lot of people were looking at him. Tony was the closest to him, who was only a few feet apart from him. Next to him was King T'Challa, talking to someone Peter didn't recognized. Captain America and Bucky Barnes were standing near a table, speaking to Black Widow. Neither of them had noticed him yet. He saw Quill and the rest of the Guardians sitting very comfortably in a couch, talking to Doctor Strange, it appeared they were arguing about music. He continued looking around the room and saw a few other avengers and there was a raccoon and a weird tree too, he was going to comment on that but then someone caught his eye and his mouth fell open. Thor was there. Why hadn’t anyone told him?! The Thor, who had helped save New York so many years ago was in the same room as him. Peter noticed the god had a new hairstyle. Then he searched around the room looking for the mighty hammer, which wasn't anywhere to be seen.  Disappointing Peter a bit. Thor was drinking something and was talking to- to doctor Banner?! Seriously, why hadn't anyone informed Peter about them being there.

"Kid?" Tony asked, knowing the kid was too busy acknowledging he was in a room with earth's mightiest heroes.

"T-Tony, hello again."  the kid mumbled, still looking at everyone.

"Do you want me to introduce you to everyone?" Tony asked, keeping a laugh to himself

Peter nodded enthusiastically as Tony motioned the kid to follow him. Peter was next to him in an instant, and Tony turned to T'Challa, who was next to him.

"T'Challa, let me officially introduce you to Spiderman. Peter, meet the King of Wakanda."

"Spiderman," The king smiled "I remember you from that fight a few years ago, you fight well, young man, I'm impressed"

"N- Its an honor to officially meet you, sir, thank you for letting us stay here" Peter said. With wide eyes, he couldn't believe the freaking king, the Black Panther, had complimented him

Before the king got to respond, Captain America and Bucky Barnes walked up to him. Peter had a smile on his face. T’Challa and Tony walked away as they saw the super soldiers coming.

"Captain America, Bucky Barnes sir, it's an honor to finally meet you properly." Peter said

"Please, call me Steve, and its nice to finally meet you properly, kid. Since I don't think meeting you half asleep counts." He laughed, and bumped his hand against the boy's shoulder to try to calm him down. Steve could see clear as day, the kid was a nervous wreck since he walked in the room.

The Winter Soldier extended his hand to greet Peter with a handshake and smiled "Call me Bucky, no need to be so formal with the sir. Makes me remember how old I actually am."

"Of course si- Bucky.” Peter paused for a moment. “Wow, you guys are so amazing in person, I’m so glad you aren't mad at me. Well I hope you guys aren't mad at me, you know, after the Germany situation." The kid started rambling. "I was so nervous to meet you two especially, I didn't know if you guys were going to like me. But I'm huge fan of you, and the fighting-" Peter was cut off from his rambling by Steve.

"Wait a second," Steve's smile disappeared and became totally serious, Bucky’s too. "You are telling me, you are spiderman?" Steve stared at him in disbelief.

"Y-Yes, I am Spiderman. Sorry I didn't introduce myself properly, I thought everyone knew already. I thought Tony had already told the Avengers and-" Peter's nervous ramble was cut off by Steve, again.

"But... you are just a kid" Steve said worriedly.

"I am actually sixteen, so I’m not technically a kid-" Peter corrected him

"You’re sixteen? God, you were fourteen at the time!” Steve’s eyes widened is terror. “I threw a bus on top of you, god, I am sorry-" Steve started but was now interrupted by Peter's mumbles

"Mr Steve, no need to apologise, we were on a fight, I understand what was happening and you don't have to apologise. I am a superhero after all, I can handle it." Peter said proudly

Steve looked at him affectionately before shouting at Natasha to come there. She stopped talking to Nebula and walked towards Steve. She looked at the kid, and smiled at him, with a confuse frown. No one had told her there was a kid there.

"Hey there, I’m Natasha" she extended her hand for a handshake "I haven't heard about you? so tell me young man, who are you?"

Peter opened his mouth to answer but before he could answer Steve answered for him.

"This is spiderman, Nat, he is just a kid and we fought him in Berlin a few years ago. Did you know he is just a kid." Steve stated, who still had the most concerned expression Peter had seen.

"What?" She asked in disbelief  "Oh, Tony what have you done" She whispered the last part yet Peter sill heard it.

"Don't blame this on Tony, it was my decision and-" He realised none of them were paying attention to him, and the three avengers were already walking towards his mentor. "Oh no" He said to himself.

__

"Tony what were you thinking ?" Natasha started, looking at him while shaking her head.

"Pardon me?" Tony said, oblivious to what they were talking about.

"Spiderman? He is just a kid, and you make him do extremely dangerous things, Berlin? Space?" Steve said, voice getting angrier at the last word

"Oh, that, listen. The kid was putting himself in danger already, I was looking out for him. I am not explaining myself right now and I seriously don't care what you are going to say about it. The kid's fine." He said sharply. He then turned around to see Peter behind him talking to Wanda. "Hey Pete!  Right that you are completely fine?"

That got him a grin from Peter at the mentioning of his nickname. "Of course Tony! Couldn't be better!" He said, returning to his conversation with Wanda.

Tony did his casual grin that annoyed Steve "See? all good, now if you excuse me" And with that he left the two super soldiers and Natasha talking to the air.

______

Doctor Strange and Quill came up to Tony and Peter, who were chatting with Rocket and Groot. Peter, being Peter was amazed by Groot. First thing Quill did was ruffle Peter's hair, like he would a sibling.

"Hey Spiderkid, glad to see you are finally awake, we have been waiting for you for ages." Quill said, grin on his face and his zune ipod in his pocket.

"We haven't actually been waiting, Space Boy is just messing with you" Doctor Strange chimed in. Which caused Peter and Tony to laugh. "Listen, kid, I need a moment with the grownups here, so can you excuse us for a second. we will have your dad free in no time"

"He is not- he is not my dad, but yes, I will leave you to talk to Tony" Peter said, making his rosey cheeks get redder, then he left.

_____

Tony, T'Challa, Doctor Strange and Quill were discussing the whereabouts of the Infinity stones. Doctor Strange had explained to the king that the Time Stone belonged to him, for he swore to protect it, and was the only one of them who knew how to use it while also keeping it safe. All in all, he was asking for the stone back. T'Challa had been skeptical about it at first, but Tony had assured him how Strange was indeed the most trustworthy person to keep the stone safe. Which caused the king to agree to give it back to the wizard, giving him one less thing to worry about. He had warned that it was fine that he took the stone but it was Stephen's problem to get the stone out of the gauntlet. They were still unable to do that without getting killed. And with that said, Strange casted a portal, and disappeared without saying another word. Leaving the three men standing there in awkward silence. Stephen then returned a few minutes later with the stone safely on his chest. The others decided to not comment on it.

Quill then had asked T'Challa to grant him access to the Soul stone. Strange and Nebula had told him there was a possibility of bringing Gamora, his girlfriend, back from the dead. Apparently her soul was trapped in Vormir. T'Challa asked him a few questions, to make sure he wasn't giving the stone to some lunatic spaceman. Tony ensured him that the stone was safe with Quill, that he even had a capsule to hold the infinity stone in, called the orbe. He just needed Stephen to help him put the stone in there. T'Challa agreed and took them to the vault were the gauntlet and infinity stones were being kept. Stephen helped Quill to place the stone on the orbe. Then they all went back to the main room, to say their goodbyes, as Quill and his team were leaving back to space to find Gamora.  

_______

Back in the main room the Guardians had already gotten together and were giving their farewells to everyone. Steve had given Groot a hug before he left, having taken a liking to him. Thor also gave some emotional goodbyes to the Guardians, especially Rocket, and thanked him for the eye. Thor said he was going to miss the sweet rabbit. Tony was confused at the eye and rabbit thing, but wasn't asking. Rocket had tried to make Bucky give his arm to him. Which of course he refused to do, resulting in a grunt from Bucky before he left the room. Shuri then entered the room with a wrapped box for Rocket.

"Don't open that until you have left." She whispered to him as she smiled, that earned her a huge smile from the raccoon.

After all the goodbyes had happened the Guardians boarded the Milano, and were gone within a few minutes.The Avengers hoped they were successful in getting that girl, Gamora, back.
Stephen Strange didn't stay there for much longer, he said he had some important things to do. Thanked T'Challa for his hospitality, hugged Tony and Peter and vanished in one of his weird magical portals. T'Challa was glad that they only had four more stones to worry about, instead of six.

_______

As soon as the Milano left the earth, Rocket enthusiastically opened the gift Shuri had gave to him, as soon as he saw it he started laughing maniacally. A smile appeared permanently on his face. Shuri had made him a vibranium metallic arm. with a note that said "A rather odd farewell gift, Rocket. Take care."

________

Tony was talking to Natasha, catching up on everybody's life in the past two years. After not speaking to one another for awhile, there was much to catch up on. He kept glancing at Peter every few minutes. Pete looked thrilled to be talking to Thor and Dr Banner. Tony knew the kid’s idols after him were the god and Bruce. He smiled to himself as Peter was talking to them and the two were looking happily at the kids rants. He was happy hi- the kid was enjoying himself after all they have been through.

“Tony are you even listening to me?” Natasha asked annoyed, rolling her eyes. “You look like a worried dad, if I didn’t knew better I would actually think he is your kid”

“Natasha, he is not my kid, he is like like my protegé. But anyways, you were telling me?” Tony said a bit annoyed and a bit overwhelmed that a lot of people in the last few years thought Pete was his kid.

“Whatever you say Tony.” She said, grabbing a drink from the table and continuing to talk to him.

______

“Mr Parker, meet my sister, Shuri, she is the one in charge of the weapons and technology in Wakanda, I believe Tony said you two would get along.” T’Challa presented Peter to Shuri, who was standing near one of the windows, working in some hologram technology Peter did not know.

“Hi, Princess Shuri? Miss Shuri. Nice to meet you.” Peter said, looking at Shuri in the eye and his eyes darting to the technology she had in her hand.

“Call me Shuri” she smiled. “So you are the famous Spiderman huh? I read that you fought Captain America a few years back. Tell me. How did you take down Captain America?” Shuri said. Looking at Peter seriously, hoping he would pass her meme test.

Immediately after hearing those words Peter gasped, then put on the worst german accent he could muster and said “I shot him in zee legs because his shield’s zee zise of a dinner plate.” Peter was smiling at this point. “And he’s an idiot”

Tony, who was passing by when he heard that, had started laughing hysterically. He was laughing to a point Peter was sure the man was going to fall into the floor. As Tony kept laughing, Peter was fairly certain he didn’t understood the reference, and just thought he was making fun of Steve. Which was more than enough of a reason for Tony to find it funny. 

Meanwhile Shuri’s face immediately glowed and gasped rather loudly when she heard Peter’s answer. She had found her new best friend.

“Spider Boy, you are now my best friend.” She turned to her brother “Brother, this white child has passed the Shuri test and now we will protect him with our life.” She turned around to Peter before her brother could answer. “Peter, do you like the gadgets Stark makes?” Peter nodded and before he knew it Shuri had started dragging him away by the hand “Then come on, Spiderman, I’m showing you my lab, you are going to love it.”

And they left.

Tony was still laughing at Peter making fun of Captain America.

______

Shortly after the kids left the room, the Avengers had all gathered around in an office table. To discuss important matters, that shouldn't be overheard by said teenagers.
Tony and Steve had finally talked about what happened in Siberia. Tony didn’t want to talk about it at first, but after Steve apologised, Tony was willing to talk it out and ended up apologising to. They both reached a conclusion that it was both their doings, and that they were leaving that situation aside. They had a way of thinking more wisely since having saved the world, or better said, the universe from Thanos. They had matured enough to put that situation behind them. Sure, Tony wasn’t trusting Cap anytime soon. But he could be around the guy, and be civil.

The conversation changed a couple of times, ranging from how the Rogue Avengers were still criminals or not. They had just helped save the world—again. It ended with the conclusion that Tony and T’Challa were going to talk to secretary Ross to stop Captain America and the rest, from being wanted criminals. The conversation changed to T’Challa planning to put a Starbucks in Wakanda and asking them for advice.
As the time passed it looked like Steve’s and Bucky’s chairs were like magnets. They kept getting closer and closer without the two even realizing. Bruce thought that if they were any closer Steve would be in Bucky’s lap. But he kept that thought to himself.

All the Avengers had already caught up a few days before, all except Tony, who had been in space at the moment the Avengers had their little reunion. He was listening to Thor and Banner tell him the story of where they have been this last two years. They told him everything, from Loki being alive and ruling Asgard. To Thor having a sister he had to kill after his father died, to the whole Sakaar adventure. Up until the Asgardian ship was blown by Thanos, and the death of Loki. Tony felt bad for the god. But as soon as Tony was going to say some comforting words, there was an unknown voice heard from behind.

“Miss me, brother?”

Chapter Text

All the Avengers turned around to see who had spoken. Shock was visible on all their faces, when they found the one and only God of Mischief standing just a few feet away from them. He had normal mundane clothes: a black fancy suit—like he had worn not that long ago on his last visit on earth— and long black greasy hair. He was looking at everyone with his usual trickster smile. Until he saw Thor looking at him in wide-eyed disbelief. He looked so shocked, overjoyed, sad yet also angry. Loki knew that the much needed conversation between him and his big brother was not going to be pleasant. Thinking about it, this might not have been the best idea to show up like that after he was presumably dead. But he had already started it, so he might as well continue with his trickster facade.

Instead of the Avengers grabbing the nearest weapon they could find and attack him. They all looked at Thor, worried about his reaction. All of them knew how hard the God of Thunder had taken the death of his brother, and were waiting to see how he would react. They were expecting Thor to be either very angry or have a break down.

"Loki?" Thor whispered in disbelief, walking towards his little brother.

The Avengers unanimously agreed that Thor and Loki needed to have a private family discussion. Deciding to leave without another word, giving the brothers privacy. If need be, they could get angry at Loki and attack him later.

"Loki" Thor whispered again, poking at his brother's shoulder to see if it was really him. When the realisation hit him that it was really him, not some dumb trick, his eyes got watery and before he knew it he engulfed him in a hug, which Loki awkwardly hugged back. He was so happy he still had some family left alive. Thor laughed while he hugged his brother, he should have known Loki would have done something to stay alive. Loki wasn’t called the God of Mischief for nothing. That flood of relief and happiness, soon turned to confusion and anger. After a moment, he stepped back, releasing himself from the hug to take another look at his little brother.

"Thor-" Loki started, moving his arms in a defensive position, as to explain himself but was interrupted by Thor.

"Why?" Thor simply asked, removing his anger and staring at Loki with complete confusion.

Loki frowned, he was expecting Thor to go all God of Anger at him. To tell him he was a coward for running, or something along those lines. He however, was not expecting a simple question, that had no sense of anger in it. These last few weeks really changed his brother completely.
"Pardon? What do you mean why?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were alive" he said, looking at the floor, voice getting more loudly. "I mourned for you, again. I heard the sound of your bones cracking when Thanos grabbed you by the neck…. I cried over your dead, lifeless body while clutching to you, hoping there was a sign of you alive." He had to pause before he would started crying, those memories were still fresh in his mind. It had only just happened a week ago and he was still traumatised by it.  Loki’s “death” still plagued his mind. "I had to leave your dead body in an exploding spaceship in the middle of Space with countless other corpses. I-" He stopped talking. He couldn't take it anymore. He looked at Loki, waiting for an explanation.

"Brother, I am terribly sorry for what a burden I have caused you. I couldn't show myself alive at the ship without the risk of Thanos knowing. I knew he was all about balance, so I figured if he killed me he would spare you. Yet, if he saw I was still alive he wouldn't have think twice of killing you." Loki explained to Thor. Trying his best to keep his relaxed, unbothered facade.

There was a moment of silence, Loki didn't know what else to say. Thor was processing the information Loki had told him. He realised his brother did all that to save him, he really had changed. Both of them had changed. A few minutes passed before Thor finally spoke again.

"Why didn't you warn me somehow? Just so I would know-" Thor asked, but was rudely interrupted by his brother, who appeared to be surprised at his brother's question.

"I didn't warn you? Are you serious? I gave you all the hints possible to tell you it was a trick. I started to tell that ancient grape that I was the damn God of Mischief! meaning I'm known for lying and tricks, specifically implying I'm a god. I can't be killed that easily, you should have known that. Then, undying fidelity? That was an obvious thing brother." Loki scoffed "Why else would I say something so weird and out of place like 'I promise you brother, the sun will shine on us again'. Seriously I warned you." He paused, laughing at Thor. "Although, I'll admit, it's my fault to think that puny brain of yours would understand those very obvious hints."

Thor blinked a few times before the most huge grin appeared on his face, eyes becoming full of life again. He went to hug his brother again, who this time did not hug back. Probably because he was being suffocated, and had his arms dangling awkwardly. "I'm so glad you are alive and well, brother." He said, hugging him a bit more tight, if possible, before letting go. "If you ever fake your death or disappear again, I will punch you until you go unconscious for at least a century."

Loki smiled, not with those trickster smiles he always did, but a real, actual smile that reminded Thor of the days when they were children. "I don't have any plans on faking my death anytime soon, so worry not, brother. I'm here to stay."

At those words Tony, and the other avengers entered the room. The noisy superheroes had been outside all this time listening to the god's conversation. They weren't not thrilled to hear that Loki was planning on staying. They entered the room complaining.

"Don't mean to pry, but greasy hair here has said he is staying on earth and correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't he the one who destroyed New York a few years ago? Wasn’t he the one who brought a full alien invasion?" Tony complained. Walking towards Thor, and ignoring the other god.

Bruce Banner, who had also been listening interrupted them before they started a fight. "Not to take sides, but that alien invasion in New York was Thanos doing, Loki had no choice, technically it wasn't his fault."

Loki's eyes darted towards the doctor. A small grin on his face. "Well, if it isn't the green beast we have here. I'm glad Heimdall's last breath wasn't in vain and you got to Earth safely." He paused "The big Green Guy was a big help back in the ship"

"I see you aren't dead, nice to hear" Bruce said, smiling as he shook Loki's hand. Then returned to the corner where he was, away from the rest in case they started a fight he had no wish to partake in.

"Didn't he try to kill us all?" Natasha chimed in. "Cause I'm pretty sure he did."

"Natasha, he is a changed man, he helped save Asgard and its people." Thor argued, trying to make the Avengers see his point of view.

"Thor, he can't stay, he has done a lot of damage, and secretary Ross and Shield will not let him stay. He is too much of a liability." Steve spoke, after being quiet listening to the whole thing. Bucky, who was next to Steve bumping shoulders with him, nodded in approval to what Steve said.

"He was just misunderstood, I bet you would warm up to him if you met him while he isn't controlled by a Infinity stone and killing people." Thor retorted.

The conversation continued for a few more minutes, it was mainly Thor trying to convince the avengers to give Loki a chance. The avengers not listening to him, that was until Banner interrupted.

"Guys" Banner said, but was ignored by everyone.

"I'm sure he is a good guy now but the UN wouldn't understand, and he is wanted by Shield-"

"GUYS" Bruce Banner roared. All eyes looked at him. "Where is Loki?"

The Avengers took a look around and realised the God of Mischief was no longer in the room. Thor rolled his eyes and muttered something along the lines of 'not again' 'classic Loki.' Steve and Bucky immediately grabbed a gun and Steve's new shield. Tony Stark got into his suit, because the God who had tried to kill him and threw him out of a window was loose in the palace. In the same palace his protegé was in, and he couldn't let anything happen to his- to the kid. Wanda said that this was too much to deal with retired to her room. T'Challa decided he would help them find him before they teared his place down. Again.

_______

Loki got tired real quick of all the Avengers yelling at him, and talking as if he was not there. So he casually left the room to wander off, looking if there was anything remotely interesting in that city.
He wandered through various control rooms, a few offices and kitchens. What caught his attention was a giant lab at one end of the palace. He went there to see what new technology the midgardians had created ever since he last visited Earth.

He entered the room and was surprised to see all the technology. He had estimated the midgardians wouldn't be capable of doing this until a century later, at least. He may have underestimated their abilities, but he wasn't disappointed at it.
He walked a bit more, going deeper into the lab and saw there was a child sitting at a table. The table was full of interesting tech, but instead the child was looking at a screen, watching silly videos. Loki had to physically restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Laughing to himself, he thought Midgardians were so peculiar.

The laugh must startled the child, for he turned around with a panicked expression. Which quickly turned to surprise and shock.
Loki was trying to cause good impression from now on, because he was going to stay on this planet and had already a bunch of people hating him.

"Greetings" Loki said, walking towards the child with caution. He didn't want to scare him, thinking introducing himself would be a good way to start. "My name is-"

"You are Loki aren't you?" The child asked. Eyes widening.

Great, the child knew who he was which definitely meant, he was scared of him, or hated him. Or both.
"Yes, I'm Loki Friggason, it appears you have heard of me"

"Loki-" the child murmured to himself, as to process the name. "L-Loki, wow. I can't- I can't believe you are standing here. I-I-"

Well this was fantastic, Loki had scared the child. This wasn't how he planned the introduction to go, but it was just a brainless midgardian child. Nothing to worry about, there were more important people he had to worry about. Yet he was still going to try to be nice. "Fear not child-"

"No no no Lok- Mr Loki sir, I am not scared. I actually think you are pretty cool, you know, That battle of New York. If you were fighting with the good guys my ten year old self would have loved you as a favourite. And the outfit you had, well I was amazed and- oh god I'm sorry, I'm rambling again aren't I? I do that, please excuse me. I ramble when I'm nervous and well, I'm nervous because you, the actual God of Mischief is here." The kid said. Covering his face in his hands when he realised his first impression with a god had been his usual rambles. Why did he always embarrassed himself in front of the super people.

The god hadn’t expected that, he was amused at the child. Smiling at his ramble, Loki thought it was interesting. He had listened to the kid ramble about the suit he had, he decided to use his magic to change to it. Within seconds his black tailored suit was gone and it had been transformed to his Asgardian suit he loved. With his long dark green cape and his gold helmet with the horns. He didn't stop looking at the kid during that time and still had a smile on his face.
The kid's face was in total awe, his mouth had fell open, his eyes were huge. Loki thought he might have scared the kid now. But was proved wrong after a few seconds.

The kid's mouth had formed a huge grin, letting out a laugh of disbelief. He stood up from his seat, and was standing looking towards Loki.
"HOLY SHIT THAT WAS SO COOL! H-how did you do that? What else can you do? I didn't know you could do that kind of magic!" The kid had put his hands behind his head as he watched amazed.

Loki decided right there and then he liked the kid.

"I can tell you all about my magic with pleasure, but I believe you haven't introduced yourself. Tell me, what is your name, young one?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm spider parker- Peter man- shit sorry. I meant I'm Peter Parker." He nervously extended his arm for a handshake, Loki shook his hand and smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Peter" he replied.

"Mr Loki sir, what else can you do with your magic? Because it looks quite different than Wanda's magic."

Loki chuckled and had a smug grin on his face. "I can do this," he snapped his fingers and a suit very much like his appeared on Peter's body. He had now a cape like Loki's and a asgardian suit, with a smaller version of his helmet. "amongst many other things. What do you think Peter?" He asked.

Peter took a look at himself, examining what he was wearing, he had a kid-like expression of happiness on his face when he felt the helmet on his head. "Oh my god, this is amazing. I have to admit, wearing the helmet of the god of mischief is exactly how I thought it would be. Amazing. If I wasn't a superhero already I would definitely be feeling like one. Thank you Mr Loki, sir."

"Peter, you can call me Loki, it sounds to formal the other way. I feel quite old when you call me mister and sir, after all I am, in I think what you would call, my teens? I'm not quite familiar with these misgardian terms so excuse me of I'm wrong."

"Alright m-Loki. Are you really I'm your teens? I thought you were about a thousand years old." Peter asked, still playing with his helmet and cape.

"Yes, Peter, I am one thousand eighty four years old, which I think would be the equivalent of about seventeen years in human years." Loki replied. He was liking the conversation with the kid, especially now that Loki knew he didn't hate him, but lowkey admired.

"No way! That's so cool! You are around my age. I'm sixteen by the way. Well this makes everything so much cooler."

Before any of them could speak again Shuri came in the lab with a box full of techie stuff. When she put them away she realised Peter wasn't alone.

"Peter? What in Bast's name are you wearing?" She laughed a bit before turning completely serious. "Who is this man? Is he an intruder?" Shuri asked, looking at Loki, as she reached for the nearest weapon.

"Shuri no, he means no harm, this is Loki, Thor's brother. The actual God of Mischief!" Peter exclaimed. "And, this are some clothes that match Loki's because it's so cool." He said, cheeks getting red as Shuri laughed. Loki sensed there would be more awkwardness, so he snapped his fingers and Peter's clothes turned back to normal.

"A god huh? Interesting." Was all Shuri said, not paying much attention to him, but turning to Peter. "So, spiderman, Do you want to continue watching more vines? We still need to watch Vines That Keep Me From Ending It All part two. You can invite your friend, but I doubt he will understand, adults don't understand how amazing the videos are."

"Actually he is around our age, technically. And hell yes let's continue watching it!" Peter said happily, then he turned to the god of mischief, who had a confused frown. "You want to watch Vines? I'll explain what they are in a second, I'm sure you will like them." He asked, looking at Loki with puppy eyes.

Loki couldn't turn down the boy, without making him feel bad. Instead he simply nodded.

Shuri's bracelet started to make some beeping sounds. She took a tablet she had on a table and starting working with it. "Actually, the Vines have to wait, I need to go take care of something. Meet me in the fifth floor on the first door in the right in 15 minutes, we can watch videos then. Bye." And with that, she took a few things with her and left again.

Peter and Loki talked for a while longer, Loki telling Peter about his small adventure after Thanos attacked his ship. Peter in turn told him about his spidey powers, which Loki found impressive. The kid also told him about the internet, and the internet world, he was quite excited to show the god the videos. Loki was happy because for the first time in many centuries. He had found someone who liked his powers, and was not scared of them, or hated him. He thought maybe earth wasn't that bad. Except for that wizard who he met last time. He didn't like him.

They talked for about ten more minutes until Tony, T'Challa and the rest of the avengers barged in through the door. Fully armed, outfits on, with their weapons pointed at Loki. He just rolled his eyes and looked at them in annoyance.

"Step away from the kid" Tony snarked, pointing his iron gauntlet at him. While motioning Peter to move away.

"Mr Stark- Tony, don't worry he wont do anything bad." Peter said quickly, trying to avoid the avengers killing his new friend.

"Not you too kid, did he went into your mind? Did-" Tony asked, pretending to sound annoyed, and panicked, but failed. Truth is he was very scared for Peter's well being and he didn't trust Loki at all. He had only met him a few minutes and that had ended in him being thrown out a window. It didn't help that the god had changed his normal clothes and was in what tony thought to be his battle clothes. he didn't like that, especially the helmet. He was not letting anyone hurt Peter.

"Look kid, just stay out of it until we have everything settled, alright?" Steve insisted, getting close to the kid in case he needed shielding.

Loki rolled his eyes, then glanced at a watch at the table. Then looked up at the avengers. "Well, this is a really wonderful reunion, would love to stay, I would really do. But I have more important things to do. I promised someone i would meet them now, and I don't want to deal with you again." He snapped his fingers and he and Peter disappeared from the room.

Tony thought he was going to have a heart attack.
_______

Twenty minutes after all the Avengers had gone crazy looking for Peter and the god of mischief. They had finally found them at the fifth floor of the palace. Tony and T'Challa had been the one who found them. The group had split up to search faster, but both were very confused at what they found.

Shuri, Peter and Loki, were in the theatre room. Sitting on the couch covered in blankets, watching vine compilations, while eating popcorn. Loki, sat in the middle of the two.

Tony saw the kid was in no danger and finally, ever so slightly, relaxed, meanwhile T'Challa groaned in defeat while cursing.

"Now there is three of them"

Chapter Text

The Guardians of the Galaxy had been traveling for two days, not taking any time in between jumps before finally arriving at Vormir. Quill was desperate to go there with the hopes that he could bring his Titan-killing-long-term-booty-call, Gamora, back.
Meanwhile Rocket was still awestruck at his gift from Shuri. He was making all sort of adjustments to the vibranium metal arm. Groot had been given a upgraded version of his video game, and was playing it non stop. Rocket had been angry when he found out about Groot's new toy because 'great, another thing to rotten your brain' which had ended in a discussion with Groot saying some harsh things…..teenagers.

Drax had been trying to perfect his invisible technique of standing still, and was constantly found in the most random places on the ship. Mostly by Mantis, which was then followed by her greeting Drax cheerfully and Drax cursing loudly. Nebula thought it was a good form of entertainment, but she barely had any time for fun because she was impatiently waiting to reach Vormir. She wanted her sister back.
Those two days they spent traveling to the strange planet had been a good bonding experience for both Quill and Nebula. They both wanted Gamora back more than anything, which was the start of them becoming friends.

When they had finally reached Vormir, the Guardians didn't hesitate to suit up. Getting all their weapons ready for their destination. Quill took the orbe with the Soul stone in it, and headed out to the mountain with those two large columns Nebula told them about.

They reached the top, prepared for fight. They found themselves looking at this strange looking guy. He had a...interesting..face shape. In Quill's opinion, looked completely stupid, and being all red didn't help his appearance. Nevertheless, they were all civilised and didn't fight if they didn't have to.

"Greetings, Peter Quill, son of Ego, and greetings company. I was waiting for you" the red skull said, in a very german sounding accent.

"Wait, how do you know us?" Quill asked, keeping his voice in a low tone and walking towards him, gun in hand.

"It is my curse to know everyone who crosses my path here at Vormir. I always know everyone who comes here searching for the thing I can never have. Yet this time it's different, since you are not coming for the stone, but the girl. Is that correct?" The red skull asked. Phrasing the question, as more of a fact than something that needed to be answered.

Nebula stepped forward, looking at the man straight in the eye. "That's correct, we are exchanging the stone for my sister's soul. We are getting her back, and if we can't, at least I will find great pleasure in blowing your head off." She said in her robotic-like voice, pointing a knife at his neck. "So I suggest you to tell us how to get her back. Now"

"Such unnecessary hostility, Daughter of Thanos, no need for this." He motioned his hand towards the knife. "I can't help you, but I won't stop you. All I will say is the soul stone has a great power amongst the Infinity Stones, and your wish might be possible." He stopped, and motioned his hands at his side to indicate them which way to go. Without another word, the guardians left him alone and went towards the cliff.

Once they reached the cliff the guardians had no idea what to do. Groot was playing with his new toy and naturally wasn't paying attention. Rocket and Drax had stayed a bit back, guarding them in case someone else came. Not trusting the red dude for a second.

Mantis, Nebula and Quill were the ones standing at the end of the cliff, looking down at the bottom. Rock with weird circular markings all around them. They didn't know how to proceed, until Nebula spoke.

"The legend about the Soul stone says that for one to achieve the stone, one must give a soul in return. I don't know much about the details, but I know enough, so if we are trying to reverse it, I guess we give the stone for Gamora." Nebula rambled, wording her thoughts to Quill.

"Sounds like a plan, but to who do we give the stone? Wha-" Quill was interrupted by Mantis, who to be completely honest with himself. He had forgotten she was there.

"We throw the stone to the cliff" she said, in her mantis-like voice, antenas straight up and black eyes widening.

Nebula nodded, grabbing the orbe from Quill, ignoring his protests. She carefully opened the orbe, revealing the shiny, dim yellow stone. She took a last look at the bottom of the cliff before throwing the stone into the bottom. Expecting to hear a thump when it landed, they instead heard the stone falling into what sounded like a body of water. Then a huge, red light appeared, blinding them all temporarily before throwing them all back.
The guardians were shaken by it, but no major injuries. After the light disappeared, they noticed a human-like shape lying in the distance. Nebula and Quill looked at each other before simultaneously running towards it. When they reached it, Quill started getting teary as he saw Gamora lying on the ground. Nebula let out a laugh of victory before kneeling, and lifting her sisters head up. Waiting for her to wake up. Quill crouched beside the sisters.

A few seconds later Gamora started to regain consciousness. Upon opening her eyes, confusion was plastered on her face. She didn't remember anything, all she knew was her sister and boyfriend were looking at her with a unnameable expression.

"Quill? Nebula?" She whispered, doing her best to stand up. "What happened? Wha-" Gamora stopped moving and talking at once. Suddenly remembering everything, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. "How? How am I alive? Did Thanos win?" She said, adding the last bit in a panic.

"Thanos has been taken care of, sister. We'll explain later." Nebula answered, smiling at the sight of her very alive sibling. She was glad to have her back.

"I told you to go right" was all Quill said. Earning a smile from the green girl, before reaching in for a kiss.

Quill and Nebula helped Gamora get to the ship. Rocket and Groot were more than happy to see her. Groot even stopped playing with his game, giving Gamora a smile and a hug.

"I am Groot"

"Me too"

Drax was thrilled with having his friend back, but was a little confused as to how she was actually alive. The other guardians had ignored him- too busy talking to Gamora. Drax confusion returned to extreme happiness. He thought he had finally mastered his invisible technique.
No one commented on that.

In a few minutes they were all together, happily leaving the place they hope they would never have to return again.

As soon as they left the place, Gamora turned on the music.

_____

Stephen Strange hadn't even been back at the sanctum for ten minutes with Wong, and he was already searching through all his mystic arts books. Wong thought he had gone insane.

"Strange, you have been here ten minutes, barely told me you were alive then left to the library to find god knows what. What are you doing?"

"Research" was all Strange answered.

"You know what? I'm done, don't get paid enough for this. I don't even get paid for this at all." Wong said, as he opened a portal to the nearest corner shop to get himself a sandwich.

Meanwhile, Strange spent the rest of his day reading, and conjuring multiple portals to who knows where.

Wong appeared the next day, a sandwich in hand, hoping his friend had stopped whatever the hell he was doing. Instead he found him in the middle of the sanctum, with a mess surrounding him. Books everywhere and other stuff he didn't want to ask about.

"Strange, after you came back from space you have been more odd than usual, I'm starting to think something happened. I don't think- oh my god what is that? Is that a dead body?"

"Yes, now shut up I'm thinking" Strange said, conjuring yet another portal and leaving for a second. Wong thought this was going to be the death of him. Stephen entered through the portal a minute after, levitating what appeared to be a stone. Wong eyes went wide in exasperation and was sure he was going to kill Stephen.

"Is that what I think it it?" Stephen nodded, as he started to open the necklace he had around his neck, revealing the time stone.

"Why do you have the mind stone with you? I thought they only gave you the Eye of Aggamotto back" Wong rolled his eyes so far back and sighed. "Did you steal a Infinity Stone?" He paused, waiting for an answer. When Stephen didn't say anything Wong knew the answer.

He really wasn't getting paid enough to be a babysitter, let alone to the most powerful master of the mystic arts.

"Wong, I'll explain later, now please do let me work, I'm nearly done. And before you keep asking, no I haven't lost my mind."

Stephen activated the stone with his wizardry, placing the dead body and the mind stone close by.  Pointing at them with the time loop wrapped around his wrist. He had his hand pointed specifically at those two objects so only they went back in time, and not everything else around them. In an instance, the mind stone started to levitate and was stuck together at the forehead of the corpse. A few more seconds passed and the corpse started coming back to life, it was looking more vivid until the man opened his eyes.

Strange stopped the time loop and got his shields ready, just in case.

The man who was just brought back to life looked alarmed, looking at the place. On guard and ready to attack.

"Vision, no need to worry, you are safe" Stephen said carefully, looking at the red metallic man.

"Who are you? How do you know me? Where is Wanda?" Vision asked, levitating himself towards Stephen. Who was also levitating with his cloak at the moment.

"My name is Doctor Stephen Strange, I am an acquaintance of Wanda, I brought you back." There was silence. "I need to tell me Vision, what do you remember?"

"I remember" He paused, looking at the floor, trying to recall the happenings inside his head. "I remember being in Wakanda, I remember Wanda destroying the stone. -Thanos. I remember Thanos killing me." He said, looking at the wizard for him to acknowledge his answer.

Stephen did a quick nod. "Well then, allow me to get you up to date."

________

The day after Loki had arrived at Wakanda, everyone was resting, wrapping their heads around the fact that the god of mischief was actually there.  Even more mind blowing to them was the fact he appeared to be of no threat to them. They didn't care at this point and just wanted to rest. So that's exactly what they were doing.

Wanda, Natasha, Bruce, and Sam where sitting in the living room. All spread out in various couches, drinking some hard liquor, enjoying each others companies.
Natasha had convinced Wanda to join them because she hadn't left her room, or socialised much after Vision's death.

The rest of the Avengers were busy doing other things that Natasha didn't care to know about. She was happy enjoying her one day off. She knew Rhodey had left Wakanda early in the morning, he said he had a government to calm down.

Sam and Bruce were having a friendly discussion on who would defeat who in battle: Natasha or Wanda, and the girls were talking about how childish they were. That was until something fell off the table, when one of Strange's portals appeared. Sam and Bruce groaned in annoyance and muttered something under their breath. Something along the line of 'they could never relax’.

Natasha told Wanda that she didn't need to worry. The Black Widow walked towards the portal, at the same time Stephen walked through it.

"Did you do it?" Natasha whispered, just loud enough, so only the wizard could hear. He nodded, and Natasha gave a smile of victory.

"Wanda, come here, I have something to show you." Natasha said. In her skeptic voice that would always annoy Sam.

Wanda walked over to the pair and looked at Natasha in confusion. Waiting for the redhead to explain herself. But she didn't have to say anything, because Stephen interrupted.

"I believe he belongs with you." Doctor Strange said, as the metallic red man entered through the portal. Wanda's eyes teared up.

"V-Vis?" Wanda stammered, reaching out to cup his face.

"Wanda" Vision tried to smile, grabbing the back of Wanda's head and pulled her into a hug.

Sam and Bruce were watching and had their mouths wide open.

"Okay, I think I speak for the both of us. What the fuck? Explain." Sam said, looking at Natasha.

"I called in a favour, Strange did the impossible and now Vision is back. Let's not get into details." She answered quickly. Before turning around to see Strange. "Thank you, it means a lot to all of us." She said, in a soft voice that was unusual for her. She looked over at Vision and Wanda, still hugging, and smiled at the sight of Wanda smiling again. Her eyes were full of life again, and Natasha was beyond pleased she and Strange had come up with that plan to bring him back.

Bruce finally noticed that apart from Vision being back he had the mind stone too. He spend a few seconds recalling if T'Challa had given the stone away at some point. But immediately remembered it was supposed to be secured in the vaults.

"Aw man" Bruce laughed as he threw himself back at the couch. "You stole a damn infinity stone from the king of Wakanda"

”He will kill you, ya know?” Sam said.

Natasha and Stephen shrugged at Sam and kept talking.  

Chapter Text

The next day Peter was woken up thanks to the shining light in his eyes. Like last time, it took him a few seconds to remember where he was- in Wakanda. He had fallen asleep on the couch with Loki and Shuri while watching Vines. Peter noticed she was sleeping at the other end of the couch, yet the God of Mischief was nowhere to be found.

He remembered Loki used his powers to transport them to this room last night. Tony was going to kill them for disappearing like that, but luckily for Peter, Tony was relieved he was well and had left them alone. Allowing them to continue hanging out, but not before he gave his new friend a death threat if anything were to happen to Peter. Which led to the adults leaving and the kids alone for the day. Peter and Shuri had all the Vines memorised, and were quoting it as the videos passed. Loki on the other hand, had never seen any of that in his life and was confused as to why those videos were important. Peter explained to him that they had no importance whatsoever, but were just silly videos for fun. Loki took a liking at them because of how ridiculously silly they were, it had nothing to do with the other two liking the videos, not at all.

Peter carefully moved away from the couch so he didn't wake Shuri. So far being successful of it, existing the room quietly. He wandered sleepily through the halls, looking for anyone he knew so he could ask where he could get something to eat. He was starving. Luckily a few minutes after he wandered around he found Black Widow and Okoye. They were talking to each other discussing favourite choice of weapons, fight moves and favourite Starbucks drinks. They stopped talking when they saw Peter and immediately greeted him.

"Morning kid" Natasha said, giving a smile to Peter and shifting her body so she was facing him.

Okoye responded good morning in a cheery way, but didn't say anything else.

"Hi Ms Romanov ma'am, good morning Ms Okoye" Peter said, managing to not stutter over his words this time. "I was wondering if you could tell me how to get to the kitchen? Or maybe somewhere I could get something to drink?"

"No need to be so formal, call me Natasha." She replied, clearly amused at the kid's name for her. "The kitchen is in the third floor, you will find it easily."

"Thank you, Ms Natasha!" He said smiling, and still half asleep he wandered to try to find the kitchen.

_______

Peter walked to the third floor and found the kitchen, it was huge and very sophisticated. He saw that his mentor and the god of thunder were in the kitchen as well. Thor making himself some breakfast and Tony looking around for a easy meal. Probably cereal or something. Peter walked in while the two adults were talking and they instantly stopped when they saw the kid. They both were happy to see him.

"Hey, Underoos, how was the video marathon with Shuri and the stabbing Goth God?" Tony said. Getting an eye roll and a smile at the nickname from Peter, and a confused Thor.

"Hey Mr Stark, Hi Mr Thor" Peter answered cheerfully. "Yesterday was fun, Loki seemed to enjoy the videos. Although he disappeared when I woke up, wasn't anywhere to be seen. Anyway, you have anything to eat? I'm starving." Tony nodded and walked to the pantry to get something to eat for Peter.

"Loki disappeared? Again?" Thor said, looking half annoyed half mad. He was finishing cooking his breakfast at the time and almost dropped his food to the ground.

"Mr Thor I think Loki will make an appearance soon, he is probably just wandering around." Peter quickly said to the god, while approaching him and Tony.

"You are correct man of spiders, my brother does constantly disappear from time to time." The god visibly relaxed. The child was right, his brother never stayed in the same place for long. He was usually to busy causing some sort of prank or mischief. Thor hoped that wasn't the case this time. He knew he wouldn't be able to calm down the avengers if Loki fucked up now.

Tony returned with a box of cereal and other snacks in his arms, bringing it all to the table. He motioned for Peter to to ask what exactly did he wanted, Peter pointed at the cereal and Tony started serving him that. Peter noticed Thor was yet again without his hammer, he didn't see the mighty hammer yesterday when he met the god. It's whereabouts sparked his curiosity.  After all, the danger had passed so perhaps Thor had left it in his room, he thought. Nevertheless he was still glancing around the room, trying to locate the missing weapon.

Thor noticed the kid was looking around looking for something. Peter wasn't exactly being subtle about it. "Peter what are you looking for?" He asked while taking a bite of his breakfast.

"Oh I'm-I'm- I was just wondering, where was your hammer? I didn't see it yesterday when I met you and you don't have it now, and- and I was just curious as to where it was because I think it's really cool and wanted to see it in person." Peter rambled, grabbing the bowl of cereal Tony had made him.

Thor laughed. "Aren't you talkative young child?" He smiled and saw Peter blushing from embarrassment, he quickly responded, "No need to worry, Spiderman, I find your talks quite entertaining, it's nice to see you have so much energy." At those words Peter relaxed, returning to eat his breakfast as Thor talked. "Well, my hammer was destroyed when my sister broke it to pieces, shortly before she made me lose an eye and destroyed Asgard. So it saddens me to say, I don't have my hammer with me anymore. Though, I got myself a new weapon! An axe, called the StormBreaker." Thor said, looking enthusiastically at the boy. "I can show it to you if you would like."

Peter's face instantly changed to a ecstatic expression, he grinned widely while having food in his mouth. Making him look like a hamster, and nodded quickly. "That would be awesome, Mr Thor!" His eyes were beaming and Tony couldn't help, but smile at the sight of hi- the kid looking that happy.

When Peter finished eating, Thor went to retrieve his axe. The god could have just called it, but there was the risk of the axe causing damage in flight. If he could, Thor would rather avoid anymore destruction. So he went to get it  from his room, and returned to the kitchen. Peter felt like he was a little kid again, looking at Thor's new weapon. It was so much cooler than the hammer. Thor was holding his axe with one hand, showing it to Peter as Tony stood behind him witnessing the scene.

"Mr Thor? Does the axe work the same as the hammer? Can anyone lift it?" Peter asked, still looking at the weapon with amazement.

Thor let out a laugh. "This is a curious one isn't he Stark? I like him." Tony looked at him and gave him a nod of agreement. "Call me Thor, please, and the axe works in a similar way to the hammer. It can be picked up by someone with great power or by someone who is worthy. Since it's like an upgraded version of my hammer it has extra qualities."

Peter's eyes widened "That is the coolest thing.” He inspected the axe closely, and saw it had some odd markings and extended his arm to touch it.

"Do you want to try?" Thor asked, Peter stopped looking at the axe and turned around to him, confused by the man. "Do you want to try to pick it up? I sense you would want to."

Peter looked at the ground, and nodded. He really wanted to try because it was the freaking hammer! -Well the replacement of it. He always wanted to do that, but he also was a little ashamed. Peter didn't want to appear like a kid in front of the god. The thing was, he was indeed a child.

Tony sat in one of the chairs near them, making himself comfortable. So he could see Peter try to lift the axe. Thor had dropped it on the ground, making easier for Peter to hold. Thor stood near him waiting for him to attempt lifting the axe, or at least was tried to.
Peter was looking at the two adults nervously,because they were watching him. Deciding then, to ignore them. He was going to try to pick the hammer! He's wanted to do that since he was a small, more specifically after the battle of New York.

He took a deep breath and gripped the axe's handle tightly, getting as much strength as he could to pick it up. When he went to lift it with all his strength, he was not expecting to feel a hard hit on his face causing Peter to fall back instantly. He had been able to lift it with almost no effort, the axe hit him in the face. Peter him fell to the floor and lost consciousness.

Upon opening his eyes, Peter saw Thor and Tony looking at him worriedly and talking to him. When the adults saw he was awake again, they helped him up. Tony instantly checked for any injuries he might have done to himself when he hit his face with a god's axe. Thor had a happy look on his face, while Tony was a mix of shock and pride. He was not expecting Peter to be able to pick up the axe.

"You okay there bud? That was some hit you gave yourself" Tony asked, putting a hand on Peter's shoulder. Peter nodded. "You scared us there for a sec" Tony smiled putting his arm around Peter and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Stop it!" Peter said between giggles, wiggling around trying to break free. Making the man laugh at his antics.

"Okay okay, you are free, Underoos" Tony laughed, letting go off the kid. Smiling, as Peter dramatically tried to accommodate his hair back to normal.

Thor stood there looking at the two before grabbing his axe and started juggling it while speaking to Peter. "Well done Peter, you are worthy of my mighty weapon!" He looked at Tony. "You should be proud of your son, barely anyone can lift it, especially with so little effort." He smiled.

Peter turned red and Tony spoke, or better said, he tried to.. "M-My what now? H-he isn't my kid. He is like far too good to be my kid. Whatareyoutalkingabout ?”

"Sure he is" Bruce said, who had entered the room a few minutes ago without anyone noticing as they were too busy looking at Peter. Bruce got to witness the whole scene uninterrupted. "I have seen how you treat the kid." Thor nodded in agreement.

Tony looked at him with wide eyes, pointing a finger at him. "Look, he isn't my kid, he is my protegé. I mentor him and help him out with the whole spiderling thing."

"And basically you are there for him for everything he needs.” Tony shot a glance at Thor. “What Bruce says is true, you have been treating him as your son since I got here, and it's only been two days" Thor responded looking between the kid and Tony. Peter was full red, looking at the floor listening to the whole thing.

"Tony, he might not be your actual kid. But you unofficially have adopted him as your own. He looks up to you." Bruce added. Tony's mouth twitched into a small smile and looked at the kid, who was smiling at the comments of the rest.

_______

"Hey kid? Where are you going?"

"Me and Shuri are meeting up with Loki, we are- uhm- watching vines?!" Peter answered walking away from the kitchen. Leaving Thor, Bruce and Tony alone.

______

"How are you liking Wakanda so far, Stevie?" Buck asked. His head was currently on Steve's lap. They were both sitting on the couch in the main living room, watching some movies and eating snacks.

"I've been here before Buck, remember?" Steve snorted looking at Bucky in disbelief, also smiling at the man.

"I know" he said, rolling his eyes at the blond "I meant how are you liking being in Wakanda when there isn't any immediate threat?"  

"I'm thrilled to be here, with you, Buck. Finally we can take some time off. And I do like this place." Steve grinned, petting Bucky's hair.

"We deserve this don't we? I mean, World War Two, Dying, me coming back and getting brainwashed. Then getting frozen again. I deserve some damn vacation. Some us time." Bucky said while extending his metal arm to grab more chips. He had gotten a liking in them when he got out of cryo.

"You will get fat if you keep eating that many chips you know" Steve joked, as he teasingly got the bowl of chips away from Bucky

"Hey, you punk! Give that back!" Bucky said moving from his comfortable seat. Trying to tackle Steve for his chips. Steve resisted and was trying to get away from Bucky, but they lost their balance and fell loudly off the couch.

_____

Bruce and Thor were walking to the living room with some snacks. Having some small talk while walking to the Theatre room.

"Banner, how long were we actually gone?"

"What are you talking about? We left for two years. I already told you." Bruce replied, looking at him confused as they kept walking

"Well, Tony basically got a kid. I'm pretty sure Steve and that guy Barnes are together and Natasha is blonde now " Thor explained looking at Bruce for his reaction, which was still pure confusion. "They are acting like a married couple, we have been here for almost a week and they haven't left each other's side. Tell me, have you seen any of them without the other in the last four days?

"I don't know Thor I-" they had reached the living room when they heard a loud thump and they found Steve on top of Bucky on the ground, covered in chips. Thor gave him a 'I told you so' look and Bruce shrugged. "Nevermind, it appears you have a point."

_____

After they had walked in on Steve and Bucky having the chips fight. The two super soldiers had embarrassingly told them what happened. Making the two laugh at how childish America's national hero actually was. The news would have a field day if they knew. They invited Bruce and Thor to watch a movie with them. The god and Bruce happily agreed and sat down in the couch next to theirs.

Natasha, Tony, T'Challa, and Sam joined in shortly after and grabbed something to drink. Even though, by then the movie was already half way through. Steve had picked a movie called What We Do In The Shadows, and they were quite enjoying it. The rest joined later. Wanda and Vision were not around, they had left Wakanda to go to Italy as soon as Vision was brought back.

Peter and Shuri walked in a few minutes later, giggling like the kids they were, and trying their best to look innocent. Tony looked at the pair and sighed, what were those kids up to now?

"What did you guys do? " Tony demanded. Looking at Peter straight in the eye.

The two responded almost too quickly
"Nothing!" They grinned, walking away from him before he could interrogate them.

The two kids sat down near Bucky and Steve. Tying to stop grinning and pretend to watch the film. They looked around the room a couple of times during the movie, as if they were looking for something or someone. A few minutes later, they started trying to put magnets on Bucky's arm. Waiting to see who could put more magnets on him before he noticed.
When Shuri had placed 18 and Peter placed 16 magnets, Steve looked at them and noticed the multiple magnets on his Bucky's arm. The kids were paralysed and just looked at him, waiting to see what he would do. Steve just rolled his eyes and gave them a laugh and turn to watch the movie.

"What's so funny?" Bucky asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Nothing Buck, Nothing at all" Steve said, giving him his most innocent face. Bucky glared at him.

Shuri and Peter excused themselves from the couch and went to the end of the room, going near the exit. They started talking quietly so the avengers couldn't hear. Then Shuri got a camera device from her bracelet she was wearing and Tony noticed immediately.

“What is that kids? Why are you recording?” Tony asked, waving his hand towards the recording device.

“It’s nothing, just for... research purposes.” Shuri answered, she was hiding a smile from him. Peter was on the verge of smiling.

T’Challa heard Shuri and immediately turned around in caution, wondering what they had done. After all, the last time his sister had said that he was thrown away by his suit.

“Shuri” T’Challa said in a warning voice. “What are you doing?”

They were interrupted by the Winter Soldier. "What the hell!" Bucky screamed, taking magnets off his arm. Steve just laughed at him, leaning into him.
"You punk!"

"Hey it wasn't me, jerk" Steve laughed. Bucky looked at the kids, a small grin appearing on his face.

"It's our doing, and I won. Got 18 magnets on your arm." Shuri said with pride. Doing a fake bowing movement with her hands.

"I had 16, I almost won" Peter mumbled.

Shuri laughed again "Sure, Peter, you almost won. And brother-“ Shuri stopped as she saw a glimpse of the god of mischief at the door frame. She smiled and looked at Peter, who gave her a nod of assurance. The avengers noticed something was happening and they all stood up walking towards them.

“THE FLOOR IS LAVA” Shuri shouted while stepping outside the room, recording everything. Peter immediately webbed himself a hammock on the ceiling to watch the chaos that would form.

The avengers were confused at the sight of T’Challa jumping on a table. He was used to this kind of internet stuff from Shuri. Although none of the Avengers did anything, mostly because none of them knew what was happening.Thor muttered something like “I don’t see any lava child?” Very confused. But they rethought their choices when Loki made himself visible.

“She said” there was a dramatic pause, Loki being the dramatic man he was. “The floor is lava” Loki smirked, snapping his fingers as actual lava started appearing on the floor. Slightly burning the feet of the avengers.

Natasha was the first to react, who backflipped into the couch. Sitting with her knees close to her chest, so she wouldn't get burned by the illusion lava of Loki. Bruce jumped to the couch with Nat. Bucky grabbed Steve by the waist and gripped his metal arm on the ceiling, confused as fuck. Why the hell is there lava?? Tony assembled his suit and was hovering around the room, looking at Peter shocked. Sam screamed and jumped to the table were T’Challa currently was. Thor rolls his eyes at Loki’s childish tricks and calmly walks to the door frame where the lava ended.

“Do you have the video, Shuri?” Loki asked She nodded grinning evilly, making Loki snap his fingers again. Afterwards they entire room went back to normal.

Peter webbed himself out of the hammock. landing on his feet next to Shuri and Loki, giving them each a high five. “That was so awesome!” The three teenagers started laughing.

Bucky unhinged himself from the ceiling with Steve, and just stared at the kids in disbelief. Then they sat down at the other couch. Bucky had his arm around Steve. Natasha and Bruce relaxed and stayed on the couch and Bruce and T’Challa climbed down from the table. Bruce going to get himself a drink.
Meanwhile Tony, Thor and T’Challa were looking at the kids in annoyance and shock and shaking their heads at them. In that moment. They knew they fucked up. The three knew they were in trouble, but to be fair to themselves. It was worth it.

“Loki” Thor said in a warning voice, low tone. Looking at his brother dead in the eye.

Loki put his hands up as a sign so Thor didn’t kill him. “Hey relax, Brother, it was a prank. No one got hurt. Plus, it was only a illusion, the lava wasn’t actually real for Odin's sake” He smiled.

The Avengers groaned, both angrily and in annoyance. They still weren't used to Loki being there. After all, he had only been there a day and a half and he was already causing fake lava incidents and who knows what other type of mischief. Everyone was silent for a few seconds until T'Challa chuckled. "Yesterday there was only one of you and now there is three of you. Are you creating a little army, sister? Because if you are, you will be the end of me."

______

The Avengers had started an argument with Thor about Loki again. Telling him that he had to make sure he didn't do any pranks that were harmful. They knew the prank the kids and Loki made, was partly harmless and funny. But they also knew that Loki was the actual god of mischief and was known for his pranks. Which usually ended up in murder or injuries. They had to put precautions so the kids didn't try anything that would get them in harm's way.

Thor was not having all the arguments. "Listen guys, my brother is not going to do something bad. He only misbehaves when he wants attention and he is having plenty with the kids."

"Hey!" Loki said, putting his hand over his heart pretending to be hurt.

"Shut up, Loki, you know it's true"

Loki was quiet for a second. "Yeah, thats true." Leaving to sit on the couch with Shuri and Peter.

Thor nodded and turned to the avengers to continue his conversation. “Not to forget that my brother is around their age, in your midgardian age range he would be around seventeen. So it’s not that bad he is pranking and causing trouble. He is just a teen.”

The Avengers were visibly shocked at the statement of Loki’s age. Not expecting the god of mischief to be a teenager. Sam looked at Loki and disbelief and had to lie down. Tony and T’Challa looked at each other and sighed, Tony rolled his eyes.

“So you're telling me, all his stunts back on 2011 on New Mexico was him being a rebellious little teen, and everything you have told us he’s done after that was just a tantrum?” Tony scoffed. “Well this explains a lot” T’Challa nodded.

Thor smiled at Tony’s comment, he was not entirely correct, since the incident in New York was due to Thanos and not a tantrum, but he was not going to correct him when it seemed he could let it slide. He looked at the Avengers to talk to all of them. "You see, he will be fine. Plus Shuri and Tony's kid love him. They make the perfect trio."

The avengers, excluding Tony and Bruce, looked confused and surprised. Natasha spoke first. "Wait, did you just said Tony's kid?"

Thor nodded "The Spiderman, he is very nice."

"The spider kid is his son? Since when does Tony have a son?" Sam added. Looking at the kid who was talking to Shuri and Loki, who were eavesdropping the conversation.

Steve looked at Tony, glaring at him to respond. Tony shrugged and put his sunglasses on. "Yeah, he's my kid" Tony said looking at Peter who smiled widely and then realised he was not supposed to be listening to the conversation and looked away.

"Tony" Steve said harshly. "Why didn't you tell us? We agreed that there was going to be no more secrets after the Sokovia accords. What does Pepper say about this-"

"Oh FUCK" Tony said eyes widening and taking a seat, passing his hand through his hair messing it up. Mouth wide opened.

"Language" Steve scolded.

Bucky glared at Steve in disbelief “ You ? You are the one to call out fowl language? Really? Who do you want to trick? We were in the army together for fucks sake!” Bucky retorted. Making Steve crack a small grin when rolling his eyes.

Everyone else seemed to have ignored them as they were too busy worrying about Tony’s abrupt mood change.

"Tony?" Natasha asked, confused at the sudden change of character.

"Pepper!" He whispered "I forgot to tell her I'm alive!"

Seconds later it it dawned on Peter how doomed he was.
"Oh no, Aunt May will kill me"

Chapter Text

The next day, the Avengers, Thor, and Loki left Wakanda first thing in the morning. Tony and Peter had packed everything, so they could return as soon as possible. The Iron Man had thanked T'Challa for everything and asked him one more favour: to help them return to their home. T'Challa gladly assured him that he'd assist in getting them to their destinations, which was a relief on Tony part. Then they messaged Wanda and Vision, telling them that they were leaving Wakanda. In case the couple wanted to visit them soon. Tony and Peter each went to their rooms, unable to sleep well knowing they would be seeing their families again. When Peter first left earth a few days prior, he thought he'd never see his aunt again. The thought of seeing her face once more, made him extremely happy.

Tony hadn't told his fiancé that he was alive. Last thing she knew was he left on the flying donut. While Peter, had told his Aunt May that he was going on a field trip with his school. Poor May, she didn't know what happened to Peter. He had been gone more than a week now. Eight days had passed since Peter and Tony found themselves in an alien spaceship. Six days since they fought Thanos in Titan, and two days since they arrived at earth. It had absolutely been a very eventful week, but the two knew it wasn't finished. They still had to face the wrath of Aunt May and Pepper. Tony knew Pepper would be very mad and he didn't want to think what Aunt May would yell at him about. Nevertheless, he and Peter were ecstatic to be going back to the Avengers compound.

After two hours flying on the wakandan ship, they finally arrived at the  Avengers stronghold. Landing the ship where they would usually park their quinjet after a mission.

______

Pepper and May hadn't left the compound since Tony's disappearance. Pepper had arrived there as soon as they finished the phone call between them. The one where her fiancé was told he was in the flying spaceship. An hour after she had arrived at the Avengers facility, she got a call from a crying May. Who asked if she knew anything about Peter, because he hadn't returned after his school trip. When she found out about the aliens, she feared for the worst. Knowing full well his nephew had gone to help, being spiderman and all.
Pepper had told her to meet at the compound and they would talk there. It didn't take them much to piece the pieces together. They both knew where Tony went. Only natural to assume Peter would follow. Meaning they knew that Peter was also currently in Space.
After that, they both worked night and day looking for any sign of their loved ones returning home while on top of that, Pepper had to handle the press and S.I. Unfortunately their efforts were unsuccessful.

That was until one morning, a few days later when they heard what appeared to be a jet. When the ship arrived at the compound, May and Pepper gave each other a hopeful look. Dropping anything they had and went towards the jet. May let out an audible shriek when she saw her nephew alive and well, walking out of the wakandan ship with Tony beside him.

______

Peter and Tony walked out of the aircraft, instantly spotting Pepper and May walking towards them. Well more like power-walking towards them. They both smiled and walked quickly to greet them. The other avengers left the aircraft quickly, and went inside. Leaving the small family to have their private reunion.

Tony and Peter walked towards them with smiles on their faces, but the grins instantly disappeared when Pepper and May started glaring at them. To the point that they thought they were going to get holes in their skulls from getting glared at so hard. Peter visibly gasped for air. This was not going to end well.

Pepper opened her mouth to speak and May pointed her finger at the two men ready to scold them. Peter quickly opened his mouth to try to save both their asses. Failing miserably and rambling a bit too much.

“B-before you say anything I can explain. Listen, it wasn’t Mr Stark’s fault at all. He was trying to save Stephen, who is this really cool wizard, and then I tried to help Mr Stark and- and to be fair we had to save the world. He couldn’t do anything to stop from being on the ship and don’t worry, we are completely fine. Well, we did almost get killed a few times, actually it was only one time- when Mr Stark got stabbed.” Peter realised that what he just said wasn’t going to help them and mentally stabbed himself, he tried to fix it. Meanwhile May was confused as to who Stephen was, but didn't put much attention to it.  “But, as I said no need to worry-“ Peter’s excessive ranting, was interrupted by Pepper. She stopped listening the kid, and turned her murderous glare to Tony.

“You did what? You got stabbed? Tony! You cannot keep putting yourself in these situations!” Pepper screamed at an ashamed-looking Tony.

Tony walked up to Pepper, stopping in front of her. Then took a good look at her face. He smiled weakly, teary eyed while gazing upon her with a pained expression. "Pepper, I'm sorry" he said finally.

Pepper looked at him in her judgemental frown. Her eyes were reddish, probably from crying and lack of sleep. She looked at him carefully, inspecting him as if she didn't actually believe he was there.
"How dare you do this to me again?" She started. Tony opened his mouth to speak, but Pepper didn't let him. "You can't do this again, I thought you had died, you should have stayed here. You should've not risked your life again. What would I do? You got stabbed for god’s sake! What if you had gotten killed?" She was crying at this point. Pepper walked to Tony's arms. Tony embraced her, and gave her a kiss.

"Hey Pep, I'm here, I'm alright, and I won't leave again, I promise. No need to worry about me being stabbed, that got sorted out." He held her for a while longer. "I'm so sorry for what I put you through." He stopped the hug, taking a look at his significant others face. She was slightly crying, but had a smile was starting to grace her face. They both knew in that moment, they would be alright.

Pepper’s voice sharpened again. “But if you do this to me again-“

“Hey, be gentle, I got stabbed” Tony said playfully to lighten the mood.

“Asshole.” Pepper muttered.

As soon as Pepper started yelling at Tony, Peter hugged his aunt tightly. Hiding his face in her neck, he smiled, he was happy to see his aunt again. May had dropped the angry mood, and focused on the fact that her nephew was alive and safe. She could always scold him later. She hugged him tightly too, putting one of her hands on Peter's hair. Tying to possibly hug him even tighter. They stood there for a while, until May let go of her boy. Instead holding him an arm length away, inspecting him closely. Investigating if he was well...if he was real. After concluding everything was fine, she frowned.

"Peter, what were you thinking of? Running off to Space! You are a kid for fucks sake. Do you have any idea what you put me through? You scared me half to death. I didn't know if you were alive, I thought you had died, I-" May started scolding him angrily. Her voice turned softer by each word until she was almost in tears, she hugged Peter again. "You are grounded for eternity" she mumbled, still hugging her nephew. Until Tony interrupted.

"You should be proud of him" he said softly, looking at the pair hugging. May looked at him with an incredulous look.

"How dare you let a kid go to Space! He is a child, he shouldn't be going to fight aliens, he should be at school. You shouldn't have let him go." May demanded.

Pepper walked towards them, wrapping her arm around Tony's waist. Listening in on they entire confrontation.

Peter interrupted his aunt, stopping her from yelling at his mentor for something that was his fault. "Aunt May, I-I told you, he didn't let me go, in fact, he rescued me from suffocating for being too high in the atmosphere and sent me with a parachute to Earth." He paused, looking down because he couldn't stand the looks May was giving him. "I stayed in the ship, because I needed to help Mr Stark. I needed to save Earth." May gave him a look. Peter instantly put his hands up in defence. "Look, I know you will tell me I'm crazy. That I didn't think about my actions, but I did. I-I couldn't be the friendly neighbourhood spiderman, if there wasn't a friendly neighbourhood." Peter looked at May's face. Waiting for her reaction.

"Well you can't be a friendly neighbourhood spiderman, if there is no spiderman" Pepper whispered. Making Tony the only one able to hear her comment.

"You know me too well Peter, how did you know I was going to ask that?" May said, looking at her nephew with a small smile.

Peter shrugged. "You did the same face when Tony saw me in the spaceship."

"I can't believe you did that" she shook her head, smiling at the boy.

"You should really be proud of him. if it wasn't for Peter, I'm pretty sure we would all be dead. He is a true avenger." Tony chimed in, giving the kid a soft smile.

May gave him a look, then ruffled his hair "I'm proud of you, kiddo."

"Thank you May, thank you Mr Stark" Peter beamed.

"No problem, kiddo"

Pepper gave him a look, Tony nodded. "Hey, spiderling?" Peter turned to look at him. "You know, you can technically live here if you want. With the rest of the avengers.”

"Wait what? Are-are you serious Mr Stark?" The boy looked like he was in a dream.

"Sure thing kid, you are an official avenger now." Tony smiled, then walked away with Pepper towards the inside of the facility.

Peter looked at his aunt, waiting for her to give him an answer about Tony's proposal. "You are still living with me kid, but we can arrange for you to come here often. Maybe stay a couple of days" Peter beamed.

"Are you serious?!" He yelled happily, jumping in the air.

"Only if you don't pull any of that space crap again." May warned, Peter nodded and gave her a quick hug.

"C'mon, Peter, lets go inside. Introduce me to everyone"

______

Peter, May, Tony, Pepper,  and all the Avengers were in the compound. All of them, introduced themselves to May. She was having the time of her life. She had already met Thor, her favourite avenger. While also being introduced to Bruce, Sam and Natasha. It had been an honor meeting them all. Peter was currently introducing her to Steve and Bucky, who were talking to Thor at the moment. Steve and Bucky were too close together. As always, but had a normal distance from Thor.

"-and this is Mr Steve Rogers, the Captain America and his friend Mr Bucky." Peter introduced and May gave them both a handshake.

"Pleased to meet you ma'am" Both the super soldiers said. Earning a smile from May.

"Pleasure is mine. Peter told me about his trip in Wakanda, and that you two have been staying there. I always wondered where had America's Hero gone off to." She told them as Peter rolled his eyes a bit. "I hope Peter gave you two a good first impression in the last few days."

They started speaking as if Peter wasn't there, he groaned in annoyance.

"Actually, we have met him before ma'am, a few years back. I believe it was in Germany." Steve corrected her, scratching the back of his neck a bit nervously.

The woman's eyes widened, as if she just realised something. "So you were the Steve who left my kid with a black eye."

"H-hey, A-Aunt May, no need to be angry. He had his reasons and I'm fine."

May looked at him, and slightly shaking her head but not arguing further. "Right..."

Peter, Steve, and Bucky physically relaxed. The two super soldiers had been momentarily worried. That they had made her angry. May wasn't some one to mess with. Steve had involuntarily bumped shoulders with Bucky, like he usually did when he got nervous, and was now almost grabbing his hand.

"Oh.." May stared at them who then proceeded to give them a knowing smile. "I see why the Germany trouble happened now." She whispered to her nephew. Peter looked at her frowning. "You two look cute together, you look like a great couple." May said to the super soldiers. Earning an instant blush, and them to start stammering. Desperately trying to form words.

But before they could say anything, Thor intervened. Getting between them, hugging them each with one arm. "Yes! I am in great joy to see you together, my friends." Thor exclaimed, in his loud manly voice. Which made everyone in  the room turn to look at them. Suddenly all of them had their mouth opened in understanding, and they were smiling. May laughed at the blushed soldiers and walked away to talk to Natasha. Leaving Peter in awe. How did he not noticed, now that he thought about it. It was obvious!

"DRINKS TO CELEBRATE THE LOVEBIRDS." Thor yelled.Tony told F.R.I.D.A.Y to bring a lots of liquor to celebrate, mostly to tease Steve and get a reaction out of him, it worked, Steve turned red as a tomato.

Bucky shrugged at him. "Guess they know now." He smiled mischievously, and pulled him by the waist and gave him a kiss in the cheek.

_____

Everyone was enjoying themselves, they were finally home, with their loved ones. They were alive. Tony and Pepper were sitting on a couch. Sharing food with drinks in their hands, Pepper leaning on Tony, sitting next to him. May was talking to Natasha and Bruce, having an interesting conversation with the two. Steve and Thor were having a drinking competition while Bucky and Sam watched, neither of them were slightly drunk.

Peter was sitting at a couch, away from the crowd  looking at everyone, and simply worshipped the moment. Every single one he cared about was happy and together. He was lost in his thoughts until someone snapped him out of it.

"Alone, Spider kid?" Peter turned around and saw Loki behind him, smile on his face.

"Loki!" Peter said cheerfully and quickly hugged the god before he could protest.

"Hello, Peter, you enjoying the event?" Loki asked, looking around the room at everyone.

"Y-yeah! It's really cool, everyone is happy and I'm glad I didn’t get killed by my aunt for going to Space.." He said, smiling at the sight of a happy May and a very happy Tony. Everything was in place.

"Glad to hear, Pete." Loki sat down next to Peter. Facing him so they could continue talking. "Did the lava prank caused you any trouble?"

Peter laughed at the memory of the avengers jumping everywhere and panicking over the fake lava. "Gladly I didn't get in trouble. I mean, I was sure Tony was going to kill me. Luckily for me he had to worry about Pepper, and I was off the hook. It is truly one of the best pranks I have been part of. Loki, honestly I'm so glad we became friends. You could say us and Shuri are the... mischief makers"  

Loki rolled his eyes at the name, but nevertheless he smiled. He had become fond of Peter and had to admit he was loving the attention he was getting. He was finally being praised and noticed in a good way, and not being noticed by him being yelled at, unlike most of his life. "Well, it was a good prank, I have to admit that. But definitely not one of the best I've made."

Peter eyed him suspiciously "Then do tell me Loki, what is the best prank you have made?"

"Well, one of my proudest moments and pranks, was when Thor and I were kids. I transformed myself into a snake, because I know Thor loved snakes. Then when he went to pick up the snake to admire it,  I transformed back to myself and I yelled. 'WAAAA ITS ME' and then I stabbed him." Loki smiled at the memory. "It became an ongoing prank , and for the next few hundreds of years I would transform myself into different things and then stab him. I once transformed into Mjölnir when he went training with the warriors three, and Sif and stabbed him while he was fighting "

Peter was loving the stories, he couldn't stop laughing as he was imagining a small Thor getting stabbed by multiple objects that turned out to be Loki. "I take back what I said, that is the best prank. But, did you not get into trouble? I mean, I know for sure I would get into a lot of trouble if I had a sibling and stabbed them."

"Frigga, my mother, was constantly scolding me and was annoyed at Thor needing to be cured every other day, and I would get into trouble. Until one day she showed me how to cure an injury with my magic. After that I stabbed him more often, because I could fix it quickly."

Peter beamed. "I now see why you are called the God of Mischief."

Loki laughed and made a small bow. "What about you Peter? Do you make many pranks? Cause any mischief?" Loki asked, looking at the boy.

"W-well, I'm usually the one getting pranked at." His voice became a whisper "I am not that popular at school, you know... easy pranking target." He scratched the back of his head and did a nervous laugh.

Loki was perplexed, he was going to ask what that meant exactly. He couldn't believe that Peter, who could walk on ceilings and had abnormal strength was an 'easy pranking target'. But was interrupted when they saw Pepper glaring at them, looking terrified. She started walking towards them at a accelerated pace. Tony was not far behind.

Loki and Peter shared a confused look. Pepper arrived at where they were. "What the hell?!" She said, looking at Loki. She wasn't notified of Loki being on earth. It was a bit of a shocker when she saw the god who almost killed millions with an alien invasion a few years ago, sitting next to a 16 year old kid.

Tony arrived seconds after. "Pep, so, I have some news  Thor's brother is here, and he is apparently good."

The couple started bickering about Loki being on earth, Pepper was not convinced that a mass murderer god living with them was a good idea. Tony agreed with her on that subject, but also tried to explain that he was supposedly a changed god. He only invaded earth because he was under Thanos influence, and the rest things he did was because he was being a rebellious little shit. The argument continued for a few minutes, leaving Loki and Peter awkwardly sitting next to them listening. Peter had lost count how many times Loki had rolled his eyes or sighed.

May noticed there was a odd man sitting next to Peter. She had no clue who he was and became worried when she saw Tony and Pepper apparently arguing about said man. She walked towards them to demand for an answer.
Her arrival stopped the argument that was happening and Tony explained to her who the
black haired man was, she didn't seem to remember anyone named Loki. Until Pepper told her he was responsible about the aliens in New York. Peter's aunt immediately demanded Peter to move away from him, which turned into a half hour explanation to both May and Pepper about Loki and what actually happened. After the long talk they finally seemed to slightly trust him and decided to let Peter hang around with him. Loki was getting bored and disappeared half way through.

_______

A few hours later, everyone was relaxing after the long day. During this time, Tony received a call from T'Challa. The wakandan king told Tony that secretary Ross, and the rest of the council wanted an immediate conference call. To also discuss some urgent matters. Urgent matters meaning the rogue avengers. Tony groaned and put his head in his hands, before taking a deep breath and walking towards the conference room. Followed by Pepper, Steve, Bucky, Natasha and the rest of the avengers. Excluding Thor, who was currently unavailable. Unavailable as in he didn’t want to deal with that and left. Peter didn’t go because he was with his aunt.

The call started and Secretary Ross could now see the avengers in the room. He first explained what T'Challa had told him. That the accords should be removed, or at revised to pardon the avengers from being war criminals. It was the least they could do, after they group risked their lives to save the world. Again.
Secretary Ross asked Tony for his point of view on the subject. Tony stated he was on favour of the avengers being pardoned, and spent the next half an hour explaining his reasons. Pepper chimed in and helped a lot by not taking any of the bullshit the man was saying. Steve had explained what he did and why, leaving out a few details.

The conference call lasted about four more hours. Four hours full of discussions, arguments, and Tony trying to not hit himself in the head just so he could stop listening to the Shield agent talk. But at last, the avengers were successful, and Shield and the UN agreed to pardon them. As well as, remove the war criminal title from the rogue avengers. They still had the subject of the accords to take care of, but they agreed that was a problem for another day. Ross personally told them that in the next two or three days the journalists would be announcing the news.

In a few days, Captain America and the rest of the Rogue Avengers were officially no longer going to be war criminals.

Chapter Text

It had been two days since everyone arrived at the compound, everything was settled and the Avengers were officially no longer war criminals. Peter was going back to school the next day. He had been gone for a little over a week, and due to the aliens attacking earth again, his school had given everybody a week off. Everyone had used that week to relax, except Peter, who had been to space, almost died and fought Thanos. Not that he would be telling anyone that. Well, except for MJ and Ned.

Ned had known about him being Spider-man for almost two years now. He found out not long after the battle in Germany and MJ had found out about a year ago, after they had became friends and started to hang out more. Peter had called his friends to tell them he was alive after Avengers and Company had arrived at the Avengers compound. They were relieved he was alive and started yelling at him for answers but he didn't tell them any details. That would have to wait.

Everyone had their old rooms back and Tony gave Peter his very own room for when he wanted to visit, and told May she could use the guest's room for whenever she needed. Steve and Bucky shared a room cause they were a couple after all, and Tony hadn’t made a room for Bucky when he built the place. Nevertheless, the arrangements worked perfectly.

Peter was anything but thrilled to go back to school, he had had a hell of a week already and didn't want to deal with his classmate Flash, who would find any chance to make his life miserable. He was hoping the kid would give him a break. Guess he would find out tomorrow.

____

The next day Peter was woken up by a very sleepy Tony Stark and May, they were teling at him to get ready because he had overslept and was going to be late for school. Peter didn't want to get May more stressed than she had been the past week and a half so he quickly did as he was told. He got dressed and got some toast for breakfast before running out the door, but had to return ten seconds later to get his backpack he had forgot. Then he was out again jumping in Happy's car so he could take him to school. Happy had been notified of everything and was back to work as soon as he heard Tony was alive and back on earth. And work included driving the kid to school when he was running late, meaning every single time.

Peter arrived to school just on time and was greeted by a very happy Ned, who engulfed him in a hug and a cheery MJ. it was odd to see her in such a good mood. She also gave him a hug, but stepped away so quickly that Peter wondered if it even happened. They barely had time to talk because class was starting. At least he hadn't encountered Flash yet.

The first few classes had already passed and the kids were in break now. Peter, Ned and MJ were sitting in one of the tables on the cafeteria at a far end in a corner. Sitting as far away from anyone so they could talk in peace.

"Peter! What happened? You literally jumped from the window of the bus on the school trip and then disappeared when the flying thing left! You wouldn't answer your calls. And neither you nor your aunt were home. Where the hell were you?" Neds questions seemed endless. He gasped, "Did you go to Space? What happened? Did you meet aliens!?"

"Ned! Shhhh. We are at school, you need to keep your voice down!" Peter shushed, looking to MJ for support.

MJ shrugged. "Sorry Peter, I'm with Ned on this one. Spill. Tell us what happened and it better be good or I will murder you for ditching us you loser."

Peter clenched his jaw "Fine, but you two better be quiet."

The other two nodded and closed the distance between them so they could talk quietly while still hear what Peter was saying.

"Yes Ned, I was in Space" Peter started and Ned squealed in amazement. "I was helping Tony, who was helping a wizard because he was being tortured by a Voldemort-looking alien. The wizard dude was really cool, I think I'll pay him a visit later. Anyway, Tony and I saved him and took down the alien.."

Peter told them everything, every detail that had happened from him leaving earth to the spaceship to him meeting the guardians and arriving at Titan, where he helped fight Thanos. Ned and MJ clung to every word, their eyes filled with amazement. Peter was currently telling them about his trip back to earth with the guardians of the galaxy and the three were so far inside their own little world that neither of them saw or heard Flash Thompson coming towards them.

"-so then Tony-" Peter was silenced by the voices of Flash and his two other friends.

"Tony? Are you talking about Tony Stark? The one you supposedly work for?" Flash gave a mocking laugh. "Penis Parker, you don't honestly think we believe that. You can just tell the truth. Didn't your parents ever tell you about how lying is bad?.. oh that's right...they're dead." He glared at Peter. "Your precious Tony Stark disappeared for a week and was presumed dead, yet I saw no signs of you doing anything to help. Where were you? You were probably at home weeping over your idol that you will never meet." Flash spat with hate. Peter just rolled his eyes, trying to calm down. His words were not supposed to affect him but he couldn't help feeling undermined when Flash was around. Especially when he mentioned his parents.

"Shut up Flash" Ned growled. Flash just ignored him, continuing to insult Peter.

"Nope. I can't deal with this shit today. Nope" Peter mumbled and without saying another word he stood up and left. He was not in the mood for dealing with Flash. He walked to his next classes and when the school day was over he walked home without saying goodbye to his friends, feeling a little bit bad about it. And without telling Happy that he wouldn't be returning to the Avengers compound that day, nor that he wouldn’t need a ride home.

He arrived home and left his backpack at the floor of his room. Got something to drink and face planted into his bed, it had been a long day. Aunt May was working and wouldn't be home until a few hours later so Peter had some time for himself. And he was spending it by doing absolutely nothing.

Not ten minutes later he received a phone call from Tony. Peter looked at his phone and groaned, face planting his face against the pillow again. Tony was definitely going to ask him why wasn't he with them. Peter loved to spend time with the Avengers and especially Tony. The man was well aware of that, which was the reason of his phonecall.

Peter answered the phone knowing if he didn't Tony would fly there himself. "Hello?" His voice sounded tired.

"Hey underoos, why didn't you let Happy drive you here?" Tony asked through the phone.

"I just didn't feel like going there today."

"Are you feeling well? Everything alright?" Tony asked, his voice changed immediately from a casual one to a worried tone.

"Don't worry Mr. Stark, it's just I'm tired, it was a long day. Nothing to worry about. But I'll see you guys tomorrow. Tell everyone I said hi." Peter shifted on the bed so he was facing the ceiling, phone in his ear. He was trying to sound okay, even though he was exhausted. He didn't want Tony to worry.

"Alright Underoos, whatever you need call me. Take care." Tony said as Peter hanged up. He put his phone on the bed next to him and closed his eyes. He just needed to rest and relax.

A few moments later he heard someone enter his house.

________

Loki was wandering around the Avengers compound, looking around for something to do as he was pretty bored out of his mind.  
None of the Avengers except his brother and Bruce seemed to like him yet, so he didn't go near the rest, not wanting to cause any trouble because he had promised Thor he would avoid trouble if possible. Tony had sort of made peace with Loki's stay but the man was too busy answering work calls and taking Pepper to lunch. Steve was still skeptical of him, and therefore Bucky was too. Sam had taken some vacation time and left as soon as he arrived to the compound, he said he had too much magic and aliens for a while. So those three were not an option of hanging out with. Natasha had been indifferent to Loki staying as long as he didn't fuck things up. Therefore Peter was the only one there who truly liked him and which Loki enjoyed his company. The problem was, the kid was at school.
He had spent his morning with Bruce and Thor, while the two were discussing science stuff. But then he got bored and went back to wandering around. He wasn't much into science as he was into magic, unlike his brother Thor who was the complete opposite.

The next few hours he spent them on a computer Tony had given him (thanks to Peter) and was watching videos and other things Peter told him to watch if bored. One of them was something called memes. Which Loki thought the name was stupid.

He stopped watching them and wandered around the facility. He had already memorised the structure of the place and was now heading towards the kitchen to get some chocolates or candy, he had developed a sweet tooth when arriving to earth. He was planning on going to the main room to wait for Peter to arrive, because his school hours were over now, until he heard Tony on the phone.

"Alright Underoos, whatever you need call me. Take care."

Loki was sure the man was talking to Peter, who was supposed to be here already, so he walked towards Tony, asking for his mischief buddy.
"Was that Peter you were talking to?"

"Yeah, the kid says he didn't want to come, said he was tired." Tony said, taking a momentarily interest in how the god seemed to actually care about someone apart from himself.

"Oh, I see..." Loki said, and left the room without another word to the older man. Which left Tony confused for a second but then kept walking as he didn't care what was up with the god. Loki wasn't buying what Tony told him. From the few days he had known Peter he knew the kid loved it at the compound and he never stopped telling Loki that for him the best thing was going to work with Tony after a long tired day at school. So the god of mischief decided to pay his friend a visit.

_______

Peter heard someone in the kitchen and immediately jumped from the bed to go investigate. He peered from his bedroom door to see the intruder and was shocked as he saw Loki in his kitchen. He walked towards him while assaulting him with questions.

"Loki? What are you doing here? Did Tony send you? No wait, he wouldn't have sent you . Not to be mean but he still doesn't trust you. Anyway, how did you get here so fast?" He said, standing a few meters away from the god, his hair was a mess, as it always was after school, meanwhile Loki's was greasy but organised.

"Hello Peter, I am not exactly here, what you are seeing is an illusion. But I am on my way here. It was getting boring back there and when I heard you weren't coming I decided to visit. I'll be arriving shortly." Loki's illusion smiled at the boy and sat down at the couch.

"That's so cool! You need to show me that the next time i am at the compound!" He paused "But I am very tired and would prefer to rest..." Peter said, trying his best to sound respectful to the god.

"Peter," Loki said sternly "you told me that you loved the compound, loved being with Tony in the workshop after you had a long day at school. So pardon me for not believing the whole 'too tired to visit'" Loki said, unamused and looking at Peter straight in the eye.

Peter tried to say something but Loki shushed him by putting his finger on the kid's mouth so he wouldn't speak.
"Listen here Peter, I am on my way, I will be arriving in a few minutes and you will tell me what is wrong. You can't deceive me, I am the god of mischief and have been lying way before your grandparents were born. So don't even think of lying." and with that, Loki's illusion disappeared leaving Peter standing alone in the living room.

Loki arrived three minutes after and knocked at the door for Peter to open, he still had his good manners no matter what others would say. Peter opened the door, not even questioning how Loki found his home address. He walked in and the two headed straight to the living room where Peter and Loki's other self had been only a few minutes ago. Loki sat down.

"You want something to drink, Lokes?" Peter asked, heading to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water.

"No, thank you" Loki smiled. Peter got his glass of water and went to sit down next to Loki.

"So.." Peter said, dragging out the word.

"How was school?"

"It was fine." He shortly responded, looking away.

"What happened?" Loki was not buying it. "Something must have happened for you to completely let down the whole Avengers squad." Loki looked at the boy with worry. He knew the kid was amazed at meeting all the avengers and hadn’t shut up about it. Peter looked at the floor but the God kept looking directly at him.

Finally Peter sighed and put his head between his hands. "It's- it's just, this kid. Flash. I-I was talking to my friends, Ned and MJ about last week and he came and started making fun of me 'faking my acquaintance to Tony' which he has done for two years now, so that doesn't matter. But then he brought up my parents.” Peter stopped talking but Loki sensed there was something more. He stood and waited for the boy to talk again. He started at him until Peter continued. "They were killed when I was a kid. That's why I live with my aunt." He finished.

Loki's face softened. "Oh, Peter," he knew what it was like to lose family. He had lost his mother, Frigga, a couple of years ago and he remembered the pain of losing the one person who always cared about him. "Don't listen to him, he is just a pathetic fail of a human. I assure you he is a worthless spec in the universe." His face turned cold as he smiled mischievously. "You know.. I could give you a few ideas on how to deal with assholes.”

Peter looked at him expectantly, he gave Loki a small nod and waited for the God to share his knowledge.

"In my own experience, a fantastic method of dealing with them, is stabbing them."

Of course he would say that.

What was Peter thinking when he believed  Loki was giving him not murder related advice.

"Loki, I don't think stabbing would be a good ide-"

 
"Or, if you aren't a big fan of stabbing someone I suggest you to break their necks or sometimes a little torture does the work." Loki said completely serious. Peter looked at him, shocked.

"Loki, that is illegal. We can't stab people or murder them. And I don't do any of those things." Peter said, shaking his head, looking at Loki with disbelief but smiling at the insane idea of his new friend.

"Not even a little bit of stabbing?" Loki smiled playfully at the kid, making it known he was joking now.

Peter rolled his eyes at him while grinning. "No, Lokes.”

"Are you completely sure?" Loki conjured a dagger and played with it on his hand. Looking at the kid with a smile.

Peter laughed and shook his head again. "No, Loki! That kills people!"

Loki was actually grinning now, happy his friend was laughing again and feeling well. Although the kid Flash was not going to get away with it. He was going to pay. Loki was going to make sure of it. Peter laughed until he was falling from the couch from giggling. Then he stood up and sat next to Loki again.

"Thank you for cheering me up, Lokes!" The kid beamed and his eyes glowed from happiness. Next thing the God knew was that he was engulfed in a hug. He didn't know how to react. He wasn't expecting this at all. He looked at his friend and returned the hug.

_______

Loki stayed in Peter's apartment for a few more hours. They watched Peter's favourite vines and kept him company. Loki took a liking on the yeet vine, as it reminded him of his brother doing 'get help' when they were kids. He made a mental note on telling Peter about that some other time. However, it was getting real late and Peter had confessed he had homework and had to do it before it was too late. Loki said his goodbyes to Peter and left but not before he conjured another dagger and reminded Peter what efficient ways there were for dealing with Flash. That gave Peter a permanent grin for the next hour.

_______

The next day Peter woke up earlier than usual, got ready for school, greeted aunt May and left for school. He wanted to be early so he could apologise to his friends, who he left again yesterday after he encountered Flash.

He arrived early and greeted his friends, as planned, and apologised for what happened the day before. They understood why he did it and told him it was okay but as a punishment he had to finish his explanation and tell them everything that he didn't tell them yesterday. Peter gladly agreed and they all walked to class while Ned was telling the two about a new lego Star Wars he got.

During lunch time the three were sitting on their usual spot. Peter looked around the room, checking for any signs of Flash. When he saw he wasn't anywhere to be seen he started talking enthusiastically to his two friends Ned and MJ.

"Okay, so I returned to Earth with the Guardians, Tony and Stephen and I went to Wakanda. It was amazing! I met the King, and his sister, Shuri. She is the best, you guys would love her. We became best friends over the Captain America vine." Peter explained, looking incredibly happy. MJ, who also loved vines actually laughed at the story and quoted the vine before letting Peter continue. "I met the Avengers as well."

Ned's eyes widened as his mouth fell open. "DUDE! I want your life! How are they like? Did you meet Captain America? Well, technically you have met him. But you were fighting him so that doesn't count."

Peter let out a laugh at his friends enthusiasm. "Yes, Ned, I met him. Steve had to carry me to the palace because I was so tired. I barely remember it but Tony wont let me forget it." Peter said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head while looking sideways.

MJ laughed "You got carried like a child by the Captain America. I'm not letting you forget it either. Never.” she teased. Peter was going to respond to her answer with a snarky comment when Ned interrupted. Again.

"You are on first name basis with Iron Man and Captain America! DUDE!"

"Yeah, they asked me to call them that. So I'm working on it. I also met Thor, yeah Ned before you say anything it is the Thor, and he got a new haircut, makes him look more godly if possible. I met Bruce, which I think he likes me, hopefully he didn't think I'm annoying. Apparently he was in space with Thor while he was the Hulk. It's a long story. I met Wanda, she was not very talkative when I met her because she was mourning Vision. Yes MJ, they were together. Then she left when Vision was brought back, so I didn't really see her much."

The three kids stopped talking when they saw Flash enter the cafeteria. All eyes shot to him, waiting to see what he would do. Apparently he didn't want to torment them yet so he went and sat down in a table with other people.

"I basically met everyone including Sam, who is the falcon, Bucky, he was the Winter Soldier at some point, and Natasha but warning she doesn't like being called Ms Natasha, so I need to keep that in mind. Oh no, I’m rambling too much aren't I? Sorry. I know you wanted the story but I got side tracked and-"

"Peter, any other day I would shush you if you were rambling so much, but for once in your life, don't stop. I'm interested to see what happened with you and the weirdos, you loser." MJ said. Looking at Peter with a serious face.

"Keep talking.” He ordered.

"Fine, fine. Well I only stayed there like two days so apart from meeting superhumans nothing happened. Well except,” Peter paused so he could sound dramatic and further annoy his friends. They both slapped him in the arm, all yelling at him to continue.

"I also met Thor's brother, Loki. He was really cool and-" Peter was cut off by a screaming Ned.

"YOU MET LOKI? The Loki?" Ned said, voice loud enough for people to hear and turn their heads.

"SHHHH!” MJ and Peter both placed their hands on Ned's mouth to shut him up. They didn't want to get anyone's attention. Unluckily, they failed at that. Flash heard them and walked towards their table.

"I'm sorry.” Ned whispered.

"So, Penis Parker. I’ve heard that apparently you've met someone. If I heard correctly you said Loki? You don't mean the Loki who destroyed earth a while ago? He is a God, why would he want anything to do with you?" Flash stole some food from Peter's lunch and ate it. Peter glared at him. "Did you really change the lie of Stark's internship to a more pathetic lie of meeting a god?"

He stood on the table and cupped his hands to his mouth to be used as a megaphone. "Penis Parker here says he met a god! Can you believe?" Everyone but MJ, Ned and Peter laughed. "Not any god though. But the supposedly God of Mischief! How pathetic is that?" Flash said, expecting more laughs but he was met with a whole room of silent teens. Peter was trying to mouth something at him but he ignored it. He scoffed. "Didn't you hear? Penis Parker is-" he stopped talking when he felt someone poking his shoulder. Flash turned around to see Loki standing next to him.

"I heard you were talking about me, care to say it again?" Loki's voice wasn't relaxed or sophisticated like Peter had known him before. Instead it was cold, his voice sounded murderous and ready for battle. He had his battle outfit on but without the helmet. Flash shook his head rapidly looking at the God front of him, backing up in fear.

"Lokes, please no." Peter whispered, trying to get the attention of his friend before he did something stupid. Loki didn't hear, he was too busy glaring murderously at Flash. On the other hand, Flash did hear it and couldn't help but give a sarcastic laugh towards Peter, momentarily forgetting the presence of the God.

"I'm sorry? Did you just call him Lokes? You are still trying to cover up the lies. Penis Parker.. your parents would be disappointed-" Flash spat each word but was suddenly yanked off the table by Loki before he could finish.

And in that moment Flash knew he had fucked up. He panicked and tried to fix his mistake, thinking he hadn't welcomed the God as he was supposed to. "Mr God of mischief, welcome to the earth, I-I was just stopping this stupid kid from saying atrocious things of you. “ Flash mumbled nervously, trying to move away from the scene. He let out a nervous laugh. “He was telling outrageous stories about knowing you-”

Loki got even angrier. He conjured his helmet and was in his full asgardian robes. "Stop talking, you mewling quim." He ordered, his voice became scarily psychotic. He knew everyone was watching. He smiled mischievously at everyone as he looked around, stopping when he make eye contact with Peter. His is face softened a bit as he talked to him. The poor boy was anxious as hell, he didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't want Loki in trouble again. "Pete, don't worry, I will not kill this worm, you asked me not too.. but I will teach him a lesson."

Loki looked at Flash who was trying to leave the room, his rage increased and momentarily he turned into his original blue form when he grabbed him by the shirt with a disgusted expression. Peter saw his friend turning blue for a moment, something which no one had noticed and became confused. He didn't know Loki could also turn blue apart from his power. He needed to ask him about that later.

"Listen to me AssFlash. If you ever think about insulting Peter or saying anything about his parents again I will personally make your life a living hell before squeezing the life out of you." Loki looked around the room and everyone was paralysed, they didn't dare to move in fear Loki was going to do something to them. The god then saw a trash can nearby and had an idea.

He grabbed the kid by the shirt again and lifted him up. "As I believe you mortals say… YEET" and he threw Flash at the trashcan, making him groan in pain. Loki knew the throw wouldn't leave any deathly damage, he was only going to get a few bruises and pain to last a few days.. a couple weeks at most.

Peter's friends were watching in admiration. Everyone else was either frozen in fear or shocked that a god had quoted a vine.

“Well I believe my work here is done.” Loki muttered as he vanished.

Chapter Text

Loki snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Ned and Mj were grinning like idiots and Peter was speechless, this was simultaneously the best and worst thing that had happened to him. He still hadn't fully processed that Loki had screamed Yeet as he threw the bully at the trash, he wished that moment was caught on video, but since everyone was too busy being shocked he didn't expect anyone to have it recorded.

Flash immediately stood up, hiding his pain as well as he could as he walked away with the little pride he had left in him, his dignity was almost non-existent now that everyone saw what Loki did to him.

Peter's good mood immediately vanished as he saw everyone in the cafeteria walking towards him and his friends, yelling questions at him about Loki and how the hell he knew him. Without another moment lost, the three kids left the room to the library where they knew they could be safe from annoying teens, for now.

Peter huffed in annoyance, he figured he could ignore everyone and wait until they forgot about him.

That was not the case, by their second class after the incident they still wouldn't leave Peter alone.

Ned and Mj had tried to help as much as they could between classes. Mj kept throwing snarky comments and insults at their classmates so they would leave them alone, but it didn't work as well as they thought. Ned was thinking of possible solutions while giving Peter moral support.

Everyone, and he means everyone, wouldn't stop going to him and asking questions and comments like 'How do you know Loki?' 'If you know Loki then it's true that you know Spiderman?' 'How did you end up meeting a god, no offence but, you are just.. you?'.

Peter was so done by the second class that he was starting to get a headache and his spidey senses were out of control due to everyone pestering him. He skipped his next class and went to the bathroom to hide from the people, everyone knew that the bathroom was the best place to avoid social interaction.

He locked the door and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, it had been a rough couple of hours. He needed to leave. His first choice was to call his Aunt May to pick him up, but he remembered that May had an important meeting today and didn't want to bother her. That's when he decided to call his second contact on his contact list.

The phone rang.

"Hello?" The voice of Tony Stark was heard from the other line on the phone.
instantly Peter panicked and wondered if  he made the right choice, his nerves getting the best of him.

"Hi- hey, Mr Stark." He rushed out the greeting, clearing his throat.

"Peter? Is that you? Is everything alright?" Tony asked, concern evident in his voice. Peter could hear people talking on the background. Shit, he shouldn't have called.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you, sounds like you're busy.. I'm just going to go-" Peter anxiously rambled and was about to hang up when Tony interrupted.

"I'm not busy, it's just some boring meeting. Now tell me, why did you call? How can I help?" Tony asked him softly and Peter couldn’t resist the small smile that found his lips.

"I was, I was just wondering if you could pick me up from school. Something happened, and it got out of hand. And my spidey senses got out of control because everything was so loud." Peter asked nervously. He was an anxious mess. He mentally slapped himself for calling Tony all because he couldn't deal with these people.

"Sure kid. Be there in ten minutes." Tony's voice changed completely, he became serious and worried. Peter let out the nervous breath he was holding as he sighed in relief.

"Can you pick me up near school? I don't want people creating more of a scandal if they see me with you.”

More of a scandal Peter almost regretted his choice of words, knowing Tony would question him later on.

"Of course Pete, I'm already on my way, I'll text you when I get there."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark"

Peter sat down near the bathroom door, waiting for Tony to arrive. His headache was getting worse due to his spidey senses overreacting to the wave of teens annoying him all day.

_______

Peter was resting his head on his knees, waiting for Tony to text him. He had been waiting for about ten minutes when he received a text, he got his phone out and when he saw Tony had texted him saying he had arrived.

Peter grabbed his stuff and snuck out of school by climbing out the bathroom window.

He walked over to Tony's car and got inside, not saying a word for the first couple seconds or so. His headache had gotten worse, so he just wanted to get home and rest. "Hey Mr. Stark. Thank you so much for picking me up.”

Tony gave him a smile. "You're killing me. Remember, call me Tony. And no problem, kid. Want to tell me what happened?" Happy was not there today, so he drove himself. He had his sunglasses on, as always, but took them off so when he glanced at Peter so he could see the boy better.

Peter shook his head. "I don't really want to talk about it. Just, people wouldn't leave me alone and my spidey senses acting up and now I have a killer headache."

"Why were the kids not leaving you alone?" Tony frowned.

Peter closed his eyes because his headache was turning into a migraine, so the sun was annoying him. "Well, Loki appeared at the school and he may have yeeted someone to a trashcan, which was amazing but-"

"Loki did what? Yeeted? Kid what are you talking about?" Tony asked, he was not familiar with half the things he said. 

"He, well, he threw a kid across the room to a trashcan..." Peter mumbled. He opened his eyes to see Tony's face, which was a mixture of confusion and anger.

"Loki did what?! How did he end up at your school? He was at the compound last I saw him. I'm going to talk to Thor so he can make sure his brother leaves-" Tony rambled angrily, mostly to himself.

"No, no, no Mr S- Tony, don't send him away, to be honest, that was the best thing I've witnessed at school." Peter interrupted him to try and save Loki from having an angry Tony going after him.

Tony took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll take care of that later." He murmured to himself. "Well kid, you said you had a headache, so I will end the questioning.. for now. I'll get you some aspirins when we get to the compound."

"Thanks Tony" Peter whispered as he closed his eyes, he was getting extremely tired.

______

They arrived at the compound and Peter had slept for the whole ride, Tony was extremely quiet and even drove at the speed limit, so he didn't wake the kid with his harsh driving.

When Tony parked the car, he knew he had to wake Peter so they could get inside, he was hoping the kid would feel better after his nap.

He poked Peter's arm. "Wake up spiderling."

Peter woke up and looked at Tony sleepily. It took him only a few seconds to fully wake up once he remembered he was in Tony's car. He sat up straight but when he looked at Tony he squinted his eyes, the light was still bothering him.

"Hi Tony" Peter mumbled.

"Hey Pete, how are you feeling? Any better?"

Peter shook his head. "My head is still killing me and the spidey senses are still messed up. Are we at the compound yet?"

"We're here kiddo. Let's get you inside and get some aspirins for your head."

Tony helped Peter to get out of the car because Peter had trouble walking well due to his headache. The two were greeted by a happy Steve and Bucky waving at them from the distance. The two men were holding hands and enjoying a calm afternoon walk around the compound. When they saw that Peter had an arm around Tony to apparently help himself walk, plus, the boy didn't look so well, their smiles instantly faded and walked quickly towards Tony and the kid to see what had happened.

"Is he okay?" Steve and Bucky expressed their worries, both looked even more concerned when Peter grabbed his head from the loud voices.

"What happened?" Steve and Bucky asked at the same time. Steve was looking at Tony for an explanation while Bucky immediately went to Peter's side to try to help. The boy was leaning on Tony's shoulder with his eyes half closed due to the light. He looked worse than he felt but having just woken up didn't help to his image.

"Something happened at school and his spidey senses got all riled up and he isn't feeling very well." Tony answered Steve. "Now I will take my kid to get some aspirins and to his room, so he can rest. Try to not make any noise and tell the rest that if they make any noise that bothers Peter, I will personally kick them out of the compound." With that said he continued taking Peter to his room.

Steve and Bucky went to tell everyone to be quiet and informed them of what had happened. They walked towards the Avengers while talking about how Tony was acting like a real dad. They still believed that Peter was Tony's actual kid since their last conversation about it a few days ago ended with Tony saying it was his kid but got interrupted when everyone was asking questions when he remembered about Pepper not knowing he was alive. And they hadn't had another opportunity to ask him about it. They knew Peter lived with his aunt and were confused as to why Tony had that living arrangement with May and not just let his kid live there. The only people who weren't fooled like Steve and Bucky, were Rhodey, Bruce, Thor and obviously Pepper. The rest of the avengers thought it was a solid fact that Peter was Tony's biological son. Steve was surprised at Tony acting like a responsible dad since every time he had met the billionaire in the past he seemed like anything but parent material. Steve was happy he was proven wrong.

_______

Natasha, Thor, Bruce, Steve and Bucky were in the living room, where they usually spent their free time doing nothing. Bucky had just finished explaining what had happened with Tony and Peter when Tony appeared with a tired look on his face. All the worrying had exhausted him.

"Where is Peter?" Natasha asked.

"In his room, I gave him some medicine for his headache and he asked if he could rest for a while until he felt better." Tony responded before pinching the bridge of his nose before getting his phone out and started texting. "I forgot to tell May about Peter. She will kill me if I don't tell her where he is." Tony explained to the other avengers while texting.

"What happened? Steve told us something happened at school and he got a headache" Thor questioned.

"The kids wouldn't leave him alone and it got too loud, his enhanced senses got all messed up, all because your little ass of a brother." Tony pointed his finger at Thor. "Decided to show up at his school and throw a kid across the room... which reminds me, where the fuck is he?"

"He did what?!" Thor roared angrily, he was going to have a long and much needed chat with his sibling later.

Loki appeared from behind, making a dramatic entrance, as he always did. "Hello brother, hello Bruce! Hello Tony." He greeted happily. Then he looked at the rest. "Hello people who hate me." He looked at Thor and Tony again as he said this with way too much cheer in his voice, ignoring the eyerolls from the other avengers. "What have I missed?"

"You little shit-!" Tony had already his iron man gauntlet and pointed it to Loki, making Loki dramatically eye roll.

"Now what?" Loki sighed.

"Brother, is it true that you went to Peter's school and threw a kid?" Thor asked calmly, he wanted to make sure exactly what his brother did before going all God Of Thunder anger at him.

Loki smiled, "Oh, Pete told you! Yes, I did that, you are very welcome, brother." he bowed. He saw neither Tony or his brother were happy and were possibly angrier. "What? At least I didn't kill him."

Tony was the first to speak. "At least you didn't kill him? So what? you were planning to kill him?"

"Well yeah? He deserved it." Loki responded as if it was the most obvious thing to answer. Anger laced Loki’s voice at the assumption that the kid hadn’t deserved death.

"What the hell Loki! You can't go around trying to murder humans. They are too fragile and adorable, they break with anything." Thor argued.

Natasha opened her mouth to say something about Thor's comment but didn't get a chance because Tony started speaking.

"What do you mean he deserved it?" Tony said, lowering his hand with the iron man gauntlet and looked at the god of mischief, waiting for an answer.

"Well, the kid was bullying Pete, something had to be done." The God stated.

Bruce finally spoke up. "Kid is getting bothered at school? Has this happen regularly?" He looked at Tony with a hint of worriedness.

"Not that I know of, he hasn't said anything." Tony answered, shrugging.

"Wrong.” Loki countered, staring at Tony with a frown. "The kid is always giving Peter trouble and won't leave him alone, it has been going around for about two years, at the least. I'm surprised you didn't know."

"How would you know brother? He met you last week." Thor questioned, he was getting angry at Loki.

"He told me yesterday when I went to visit him at his house, he had a bad day thanks to that kid, what was his name... Flash, the kid was named Flash."

"What?" he mumbled. Tony looked at the God in disbelief, he ran his hand through his goatee as he did when he was nervous. He couldn't believe Peter hadn't said anything to him, he could have helped. He would need to talk to his aunt about it, to see if she knew anything.  

Loki looked around, noticing the absence of his friend in the room, if Peter had told them about the incident then he should be here right? "Where is Pete? Shouldn't he be here?"

"He is sleeping, everyone wouldn't leave him alone after you left that his super senses got out of control and couldn't handle it. Great job on that one." Steve scoffed, glaring at the god.

"Oh shit." Loki said to himself. "I will fix this" He hadn't thought of how Peter was going to take the toll when he did his stunt. Loki felt bad at what he had caused Peter since he knew the next day the kid would have to return to school, with all the drama. He needed to fix it. He mentally went over all the possible solutions of how he could help solve what he had caused. He ignored the people who were talking to him and when he had an idea he disappeared from the room and left without saying a word to anyone.

Thor was extremely mad at his brother's stunt and was lecturing him on all the things he had done wrong. He did not notice his brother leaving at the middle of his long rant, so when he finally finished letting all his anger out, he looked around for Loki.

"Where is Loki?"

"He left ten minutes ago" Bucky said.
________

Tony walked in to Peter's room about an hour after Loki disappeared, he was letting Peter get some rest before he confronted him about what Loki had told him. He saw Peter was awake and was laying on his bed listening to some music. Peter sensed someone was in the room so he sprinted himself out of the bed in a sense of alarm. Once he saw it was Tony he relaxed and calmed himself down.

“How are you feeling, Underoos?” Tony asked, walking towards the kid.

“I’m much better Mr- Tony. Thank you.” He gave the man a weak smile.

“I need to talk to you. Can I sit down?” Tony motioned his hands pointing the end of the bed. Peter nodded and Tony sat down. “So I ran into Loki earlier, don’t worry kid, he is not in trouble, but he said some things that got me worried. And well, I wanted to ask you.”

“Okay Tony, am I- am I in trouble?” He said nervously, sitting up crossed-leg facing Tony.

“No Pete. It’s just that Loki told me you have had some trouble with some kid at school, is that true?”

“No?” Peter said, hoping he could avoid the conversation.

Tony lifted an eyebrow looking at Peter. “Peter tell me the truth”

Peter did not looked at Tony, and mumbled his response. “Fine, yes, maybe. But it’s fine, I can handle it” He was getting nervous and started fiddling with his fingers. He looked up to see Tony’s face. “Are you mad at me?”

“No kid, I’m not.” There was a pause. “But why didn’t you tell me? You know I could help with whatever the situation was. I could have made the kid leave school if you wanted. You could've just asked.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just, you’re you and you are always so busy and I didn’t want to bother, plus, I don’t think the great Tony Stark would take the time for some stupid high school kid problems.” Peter rambled, he was getting more nervous than he usually was. He didn’t want to talk about it.

“Peter, you are not bothering and you should have told me. You can’t decide what’s worth my time for me. I’m never too busy.” He gave Peter a smile which he returned slightly then Tony went serious again. “Although, if that's your excuse for not telling, then why didn’t you tell your Aunt? She wasn’t aware of any of this when I asked.”

“You spoke to aunt May?!” He put his head on his hands and sighed in annoyance. “She is going to interrogate the heck out of me when I get home!”

“She had to know, and you deserve the upcoming wrath of your aunt for not telling her.” He joked before his voice turned serious. “Why didn’t you tell any of us?”

“Because I can handle it, I’m spiderman so I’ve gone through worse. Plus most of the time it’s just verbal and I can ignore him.”  

“What? The idiot gets physical too? Suddenly I wish Loki would have thrown him with more force, or out a window.”

Peter laughed at the thought. “Loki throwing him at a trashcan was enough and I think he will leave us alone so it’s all good”

“But if he bothers you again I need you to tell me. I will help, don’t think you are a bother. Okay?”

Peter nodded “Okay..” Tony opened his arms for a hug and Peter grinned as he gave him a hug. He knew Tony giving hugs was rare so he was happy he was getting one.

After Tony made sure Peter was alright and better, they both went to where the avengers were because after the whole drama, everyone wanted to see Peter. He had a chance to talk to everyone and they told him that Loki disappeared again so he might not be back that day. He talked to Bruce and Thor mostly, talking about science and stuff. He had a great rest of his afternoon.

________

Wanda and Vision were traveling around the world, giving themselves the much needed vacation they deserved. They had been to most places in Europe and some islands around the world. They were currently in the Bahamas, enjoying a nice afternoon near the pool.

Wanda was laying in a beach chair near the pool enjoying the sun while Vision, who was in his human facade, was next to her in a chair with shade, reading a book.

“This place is so peaceful isn’t it Vis?” Wanda said, holding Vision’s hand.

“It is indeed. We should stay here for a while, away from the world problems.”

Wanda was responding when she was interrupted by someone. She and Vision both stood up immediately as they heard a familiar voice.

“Sorry to interrupt your vacation retreat Wanda, Vision. But I have a situation.”

“Loki? What are you doing here” Wanda asked, looking at Vision who was as astonished as she was.

Chapter Text

After the shock of seeing Loki passed, Wanda immediately conjured her magic and was ready to fight the God. Vision's cape appeared, and he too became ready to attack.

"Loki, you have three seconds to tell us why you're here and what your quarrel is before Vision hits you with the mind stone and I send you flying." Wanda spoke, her accent thick. She was annoyed that she couldn't have a peaceful vacation alone with Vision. The last time they wanted some alone time with him Aliens happened and then they almost killed Vision, and now, that they had finally thought they could relax after Vision's death, Loki showed up. Both Wanda and Vision knew that when Loki appeared, trouble followed.

"Greetings Wanda, yes, it's me, Loki and I would appreciate it if you didn't try to kill me. Not that it would work though, but I assure you it would be quite unpleasant. My visit here means no harm." Loki assured the witch, who was still unsure of Loki's intentions. But nevertheless, she lowered her arms and relaxed a bit, thinking she wouldn't need to fight. Not yet, at least.

Vision was still in fighting mode and was sceptical of Loki. He didn't trust the mischief maker one bit. "Then what brings you here?"

Loki started walking around. "As I have told you a few minutes ago, I have a situation that requires your help." He addressed the last part towards Vision.

"Did Tony send you? Is this an avengers problem?" Wanda asked.

"No, he didn't. This is more of a personal help."

"Then why would we help you?" Vision said, looking at the man as if he was out of his mind. But to be fair, he was out of his mind.

Loki wasn't one to plead, so when Vision denied his request his first instinct was to be his usual self and threaten them. "If you won't help, I'll make you. You know I am a god, and you know I am known for my mischief. You haven't seen my full potential and when-" Loki was cut off by Wanda.

"No"

"I beg your pardon? Loki hissed. He was not used to getting interrupted when he was in his God-complex mode. He conjured his armour and helmet. None of the tourists around noticed any of that since Loki casted an illusion on the three of them the minute he arrived.

"No, we won’t help you. You can threaten us all you want, I might not be able to kill you, but I was able to take on a five-infinity stone gauntlet Thanos while destroying another. I'm pretty sure I could give you some serious damage." Wanda closed her eyes for a second, the memory of her having to kill Vision was still fresh in her mind since it occurred a week ago. She didn't want to relieve that again. But she was not taking any of Loki's shit. Maybe in another time she would but taking on a mad Titian had changed her perspective.

Loki didn't say anything to her comment, he didn't know what to say. This was a new thing for him. He didn't engage in a fight, knowing full well Wanda was right and she could inflict serious damage, although he also knew he was powerful as well and could most likely take down the witch, but he preferred it didn't come to that.

Vision faintly smiled at Loki's reaction, knowing Loki wasn't going to do anything. "Well, now that that is settled you can leave now. We don't want you to continue annoying us any longer."

With those words Loki had an idea. He knew how he was going to make them help him. He looked up at Vision and smirked. "This isn't over." Loki laughed before snapping his fingers and disappearing. If they wanted to have some peace and quiet, they were getting the opposite of that, Loki was going to make sure of that. He wasn't called the God Of Mischief for nothing.

_______

"Fine! You win!" Wanda screamed at the air, hoping Loki would appear.

The last four hours had been hell for Wanda and Vision, not because they were suffering or anything, they had no patience left and were getting restless because Loki kept messing with the little things. He made illusions so that it looked like the pool was full of crabs, every time Wanda or Vision would order food he would mess up the orders. And during the rest of the time he kept messing up with similar things. It wasn't much but over time the couple couldn't take it anymore, they couldn't make a damn thing without it turning horribly bad.

Loki appeared in front of them, he had changed from his battle clothes to some dark suit that he liked. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that, what did you say?" He smiled sarcastically at Wanda and Vision.

Wanda glared at him with hatred. She gritted her teeth. "Fine. You win. We will help you. Just stop annoying us."

"Fabulous, I'm delighted to hear." Loki usually acted as a child around people he cared and would be his usual self, but when he wanted he would put on his murder-king facade, and sometimes his annoying little shit king facade. Today, he was using his little-shit-king facade.

Only now did Vision realised they never actually asked what Loki needed help with. For all they knew Loki could need help with world domination and they had just agreed to it. "And in what exactly do you need help with?"

"Well, it involves you using that thing you have there." Loki pointed at Vision's forehead where the mind stone was. "I'll explain my plan in a moment."

"Why do you need the stone?"

"Something involving helping Tony's kid." Loki responded, crossing his arms.

"You know, you could have started with that you know? It would have saved us a lot of time and patience." Wanda grumbled, rolling her eyes.

_______

Tony had talked to Aunt May, so Peter could stay the night at the compound with the promise Tony would get Peter ready for school in time. May wasn't sure at first since she wanted to talk to Peter, but Tony convinced her to let him stay.

It was getting late and Tony was with Peter and the rest of the Avengers were watching a few movies before going to bed. Well before Peter went to bed because he had school and Tony headed to his workshop as usual.
Natasha and Bruce were sharing a couch, watching the movie and eating popcorn. Tony and Peter shared another couch and they spent most of the time saying snarky comments at the TV. Everyone would laugh at how similar those two were, like father like son they thought. It was adorable.

Steve and Bucky of course shared a couch while watching the movies, Bucky was laying on the couch with Steve on top of him, and that’s how Steve had ended up sleeping while cuddling his boyfriend. Everyone noticed it and when they were going to say something about it, and Natasha was about to take a picture of it, Bucky did the slowest, silent most intense throat cutting gesture while glaring at them murderously, so they shut up so Steve could sleep.
Everyone laughed at how adorable it was but seemed to get the memo and stopped teasing them and continued watching tv, except Natasha, who didn't care and snapped a picture of the two while smiling smugly. Bucky glared at her that clearly showed he was an ex assassin and if she woke Steve up they would never find her body. She laughed at it and took one more picture. Bucky rolled his eyes at her.

After that whole grumpy Bucky thing happened everyone continued to watch one more movie before they all started saying their goodnights and heading to bed.

Tony and Peter were walking down the hallway together since their rooms were nearby. Peter’s relaxed and happy self started to get nervous as he walked to his room and Tony noticed something was off.

"Hey, Spiderling?"

Peter stopped walking and looked at Tony, waiting for him to continue talking.

"What's wrong Pete? You seem nervous. Is it because of what happened today?"

"I'm fine-" Peter blurted but Tony was not buying it. Peter knew he was not getting out of this conversation. "Fine, I'm just nervous about going to school tomorrow. I don't want everyone interrogating me about Loki. Everyone would want me to answer their questions and shit-"

"Don't worry about that, it’s taken care of."

Peter and Tony turned their heads to see where Loki was. Peter had to talk to him about appearing at random situations. Loki was standing in his black suit and was smiling at them. "Hello Pete. Hello Tony.”

Peter smiled at the God waving at him. "Hello Lokes!"

"What do you mean taken care of?" Tony questioned. He did not like the sound of it.

"I took care of the situation and now Peter won't have to worry about going to school tomorrow." The God explained as he turned to speak to Peter. "You can stop being nervous about school kid, they won’t be annoying you anymore." Loki looked at the faces of shock of both Tony and Peter, the two thought Loki might have solved the situation by murder. "Don't worry, I didn't murder anyone."

Peter let out a breath he was holding. Tony on the other hand was not convinced of the statement the God had said. After an uncomfortable moment of silence Tony demanded for Peter to go to his room. The boy was about to protest but when he saw Tony's murder look at Loki he complied and went to his room while muttering something under his breath. Once Tony made sure Peter was in his room he commanded Loki to follow him into his workshop, where he knew Peter couldn't eavesdrop, not even with his enhanced senses. Loki had no choice but to follow.

Once Tony and Loki were in the workshop Tony finally spoke up.

"So, let's recap what you have done wrong today. Firstly, you show up at my kid's school and throw some kid at a trashcan, which I may or may not support your actions on that. Then you leave, while Peter had to deal with the aftermath of your actions. Which I took care of. And then you show up a few hours later, saying everything is fixed. Saying you didn't kill anyone, which makes me very suspicious that you did. Would you mind explaining me what the hell was today about? Or should I bring your brother into this?" He rambled while walking around the workshop, never taking his stare off Loki. He was fidgeting with a screwdriver while speaking.

Loki waited a few seconds before replying to Tony's rant. "Firstly, I assure you on Peter's life I didn't cause any harm or killed anyone. Secondly, I did take care of it and Peter will no longer be pestered with questions about my stunt earlier."

Tony was growing impatient. "But what did you do to 'fix it'?" He started tapping his foot repeatedly against the ground.

"Simple, I found the names of everyone who saw what happened and changed their memories." Loki said with a smile.

"Look Greasy, I don't know you that much, but I am certain that you can't change someone's memories, so what did you do?"

"Well this explanation is going to take some time so let me just." Loki pointed to a seat that was near him and sat down, he sprawled on the chair comfortably before starting his explanation. "I used the mind stone, I have used it before and I know of its powers, I can manipulate someone's mind to make it think what I want, I used it before for mind control, but it also helps with mind manipulation. So, I went to where Vision and Wanda were, as I know he has the mind stone, and asked them to help me. Of course, he didn't agree to help him, so I made him." He paused, and looked at Tony, who had arched an eyebrow at him waiting to hear an explanation to what he meant. "I annoyed them until they said yes."

"Oh..” Tony answered while scratching his goatee, one of the things he did when he was nervous or thinking.

"So, then we visited the kid's homes, and manipulated their memories so they had no memory of my appearance at Peter's school, except Flash, we let him remember everything, and his two friends too." Loki finished talking and shifted on the chair, waiting for Tony to say anything.

"Got to give it to you, that is a great plan, I'm impressed. And I'm more impressed that you accomplished it without any killings." He stopped and frowned. "But one thing I don't get is that Wanda and Vision were in the Bahamas and you don't have the ability to teleport, so how the hell did you went to the Bahamas, then back here in just a few hours? I doubt you took a plane." He looked at Loki and squinted suspiciously. "Now that I think about it, you are always appearing and disappearing randomly, how the heck are you doing that?" Tony pondered.

"Wouldn't you likje to know." He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at him before snapping his fingers and disappeared again.

__________

The next day Peter woke up early and got ready for school. He had asked Tony what the whole Loki fuss was about the night before. Tony didn't go into details about everything Loki did, because it was too early for him to function without at least two cups of coffee so he just briefly explained to him the situation.
He told Peter that Loki had actually managed to fix the situation and he was not going to get any Loki related problems at school today. Peter grinned at that and his mood became better. Then he went to make himself breakfast before running to Happy's car, so he could get a ride to school.

Once he arrived at school he happily looked for his two friends. He was nervous someone was going to say something about yesterday but after Tony told him it was all fine, he relaxed, he trusted Tony and Loki enough to know that if they said they took care of the problem then they did. Not a few minutes later he found Ned and Mj sitting on a bench near the lockers. Mj was reading a book, as usual and Ned was on his phone but looking around every few seconds to see if Peter had arrived yet. Once his friends saw Peter they both smiled and waved at him while Peter walked towards them.

"Sup, loser." Mj took her eyes off her book and smiled at him before reading again.

"Dude, what happened yesterday? You left to the bathroom to hide and then you left? Did Mr Stark pick you up? What happened? Did you see Loki again?" Ned asked wide eyed.

Peter laughed at his over enthusiastic friend. "Yes, he picked me up, I was not feeling well so I went to the compound and slept. I saw Loki, he appeared at night told me he fixed the situation and then Tony told him to go to the lab, and I didn't see him after that.

"What do you mean he ‘fixed’ the situation?" Ned became confused.

"He told me no one was going to bother me with the Loki questions, which so far has been true. Everyone I bumped into at school today didn't say a thing, they are even acting like it didn't happen. Guess I owe Loki one."

"It's great you have a god on your side then." Mj spoke, finally closing the book and joining the conversation fully.

"Yeah, I guess so." Peter smiled at the thought.

They talked for a few minutes before the bell rang so they started heading towards their lockers to get their books out for their classes. The three has their first class together so they were walking together in the crowded hallway to their English class. And that's when they saw Flash and his friends. When he saw Peter, he said something to his friends and they laughed before walking towards them. Peter sighed, knowing no matter what Loki had done, Flash still was going to give him trouble.

"So, Penis Parker, I thought you were staying at home with your Aunt since you clearly couldn't deal with a few innocent questions about how you actually know a God." He nagged, waiting for Peter to become nervous or annoyed. But Peter just shrugged.

"I don't know what you mean, they haven't said I word today, so it's all good. Now stop wasting my time." Peter usually wasn't the one to answer back and defend himself, but today he felt more confident about himself for some reason. But Peter was sure this talking back thing wouldn't become a regular thing.

"Huh?" Flash was flabbergasted to Peter's response, firstly because he wasn't used to people talking back to him, especially Penis Parker. Secondly, he didn't understand why no one was attacking him with questions, he thought since yesterday everyone was annoying Peter he would have a few days to enjoy Peter's suffering that wasn't his doing. He was not having any of this. As the big attention seeker, he is, he cupped his hands to his mouth, so people would hear him. "Penis Parker here just told me he was answering all questions about yesterday's incident with Loki! Form a line people!" He shouted, expecting everyone to go wild, but instead of everyone going wild like the day before, everyone shot him puzzled looks at him.

_____

Peter knew his peace was gone as soon as Flash yelled that to the whole school. Ned and Mj knew that too and protectively stood next to him waiting to get him out. But the three were left shocked when people looked at flash as if he was insane. People started muttering things amongst each other like 'what is he talking about?' 'Is he now inventing things like Peter?' 'If he's talking about Loki what's next? He'll say he has a Stark internship too?'.

It didn't take much for Peter to understand, Loki had somehow made them forget, that amazing little shit. He internally laughed at Flash's expressions and decided to mess with him.

"Flash? What are you talking about? Loki? As in Thor's brother?" Peter pretended to be as confused as the other people on the hallway. Mj and Ned understood immediately and joined in too.

"What incident? All I remember is you falling on a trashcan." Ned added. Trying to hide his smile.

"Flash, nothing having to do with Loki happened yesterday, you must have hurt your head when you tripped on the trashcan and fell inside." Mj said, her poker face was well done, and no one could tell she was lying.

"Wha- what? N-no you- but-" Flash started stuttering. He felt as his whole life was a lie, Peter almost felt bad for him. Flash just left them and left.

Mj and Ned started talking to Peter and laughing at what just had happened talking about how Flash's plan backfired. Peter talked too and the three laughed. He ended up having a great day, he went to all his classes and didn't have a problem with Flash. He knew because Flash was going to think the Loki thing was a dream or something he was still going to get bullied by him sooner or later. All he knew is that now he was having a great day and he had to thank Loki when he got back to the compound.

Chapter Text

The school bell rang as all the kids started to pack their things to go home. Peter couldn't wait for Happy to pick him up, not that he was having a bad day, to the contrary, his day had been great. The thing was he needed and wanted to go to the compound as soon as possible to find Loki, he had to thank the God for helping him. May almost didn't let Peter go there today because she wanted to talk to Peter about the Flash incident, which they haven't had a chance to talk about. Peter convinced her to go by telling her she would be at work either way, so they could talk later.

Peter got his books and his bag and said goodbye to Mj and Ned, he then headed to the parking lot where Happy's black car waiting for him. He cheerfully greeted Happy which he said a nonchalantly hello in return. The car ride back to the compound was the usual thing, Peter talking nonstop to Happy about his day and Happy grunted in response as if he didn't care or listen to what the kid was saying, but in truth the man enjoyed hyperactive Peter afternoon talks.

Once they arrived at the compound Peter got down and shouted a goodbye to Happy before running inside to meet Tony and then the rest. He went to the lab, where Tony usually was at this time of the day and saw that the man was there and working on his suit, he was upgrading the nanotechnology of his suit to make it more efficient.

When Tony saw Peter was in the room he stopped working and gave the kid a big smile. "Hey, Kiddo! How was school? Did anyone bother you about yesterday's incident?"

The kid smiled. "It was really good, Tony! No one asked me anything because I think Loki made something to their memories. Well, Flash did say something, but no one paid him attention, they thought he was crazy for saying anything about Loki. Ned, Mj, and of course myself went along pretending nothing happened. You should have seen his face da- Tony! He was so confused, so I'm pretty sure he will leave me alone for a while."

Tony smiled at the rambling boy and didn't catch onto the fact he almost called him dad. He was too busy listening to how Flash got his payback. "That's great news, Underoos. Seems like Loki finally did something good."

"Yeah! I actually wanted to talk to him and thank him. By any chance do you know where he is? Or did he disappear again?"

"Sure thing kid, he is actually downstairs with Thor last time I checked. They were talking to Bruce about something."

"Thank you Tony!" The kid shouted as he was sprinting towards the elevator to go see his friend, leaving his backpack and books alone with a laughing Tony. He hadn't seen his kid so enthusiastic after school for a while.

Peter walked to the Avenger’s common room where everyone usually was. In this case literally everyone was there. Natasha, Bruce, Steve, Bucky, Sam and Rhodey who apparently had returned today. But Peter didn't see Thor or Loki. When the Avengers became aware of Peter’s presence they all smiled and simultaneously greeted him with some sort of 'hi'.

"Hello Steve, hello Bucky, hello Natasha, hello Bruce, hello Mr. Sam and hello Mr. Rhodes. Nice seeing you all." He smiled and greeted each one individually. Because he was familiar with some of them, he knew better to call them by their usual name with no 'Mr' or 'sir' but since he hadn't spoken with Rhodey or Sam he preferred to address them more formally. He looked around before asking. "By any chance do any of you know where Loki is?"

"We were just grabbing some snacks." Thor said. Loki and Thor appeared as on cue. They both had their arms full of food, they had several types of chips and some sweets and chocolate, mostly for Loki.

Loki saw Peter and grinned. "Hello Pete, nice to see you're here. How was school? I hope there wasn't any troubles."

"Loki!" Peter said as soon as he saw the God. He ran to him and engulfed him in a tight hug. Loki, who barely had time to put away the food he was carrying, was frozen a few seconds processing what was happening, he still wasn't so used to hugs, nevertheless he hugged the boy back while everyone stared at the scene that was unwrapping in front of them. "Thank you...” Peter mumbled as he continued hugging Loki.

"I take it today went well then" Loki replied warmly. Peter nodded before pulling back from the hug.

Sam and Rhodey both spoke at the same time. "Someone explain what is happening. Now." Since they weren't here the last few days they were confused at the current situation.

_________

After catching up Sam and Rhodey, which had taken some time. Peter stayed with the Avengers for a while watching movies and shows, ignoring the fact that he had homework. Tony had joined them not so long after Peter had, and they were all bickering and throwing chips at each other when someone wouldn't shut up while the movie was playing. At around five in the afternoon Tony asked Peter about his homework, which Peter answered truthfully saying he hadn't done it yet. After all he was bad at lying, he could keep up the big lies, like his identity as Spiderman but he couldn't keep up small white lies. It was ironic. Tony then said he had to go home to finish his work. Even if he hadn't to do his work he would have to leave soon because May had a very strict curfew during school nights. Especially tonight because she needed to talk to Peter.

Peter said his goodbyes and headed to the garage so Happy could drive him home. He had told Tony that he could get home with his webs with no problem, but Tony refused. Once in the car the whole ride home was quiet and peaceful, Happy was happy about it.

He arrived home and immediately texted Aunt May, telling her he had arrived home safely and before his curfew. She answered by telling him she was still working, and she should be done in an hour and then she would be heading home. Peter knew he had about two hours to himself before his Aunt showed up and the interrogation began, so he went to his room to start his English and Chemistry homework. It didn't take him long to realise he left his English book at Tony's lab, but he just figured he could just ask Ned tomorrow about what the book was about.

When he was about to finish his chemistry homework his spidey senses alarmed him of someone's presence in the house. So, he stealthily got up and walked on the ceiling towards the living room to see who was there.

He was surprised to see Loki sitting on the couch, same way Peter had found him a few days ago.

"Seriously Lokes, you have to stop doing this. There is a doorbell for something. You scared me." Peter crawled down from the ceiling and walked over to the couch and sat down. "What are you doing here anyway? Not that I'm not glad to see you, I'm just curious.”

"Hello Peter, I got bored so I decided to pay another visit, I'll try to use the door next time."

"Thank you. Well now that you are here, would you want something to eat or drink?" Peter asked, and Loki just shook his head.

Peter sat down next to Loki and the two started talking for a while. They talked about how their day went, about the movie they had watched earlier with everyone and many other things. Peter had told him every single detail about his school day, going on a half an hour rant about the Flash incident even though he had already told it to multiple people today. Loki also told him about his day, how he met Rhodey whom he hadn't met yet and he also talked to Thor for a while. Peter was glad to hear it hadn't end up in Loki stabbing his brother or something, he knew how those two siblings were and how Loki always ended up trying to stab or annoy Thor. After their conversation there was a long silence when Peter broke it with a question.

"Hey, Loki? Can I ask you a question?" Peter asked, looking at his hands nervously.

"Sure thing, Pete."

"Okay, so you don't have to answer it, but yesterday when you were at my school throwing Flash to the trashcan, there was a moment when you turned blue..." At those words Loki stiffened up a little, he was not used to talking about his origins of a Frost Giant. Peter sensed Loki probably would not want to talk about it and tried to do something. "I mean it was just for a second, I might have just imagined it. Just pretend I didn't ask. Sorry"

Loki took a deep breath, he could easily make something up, but this was Peter, and Loki liked he kid so he might as well tell him. The god was unsure if the kid would fear him once he knew he was a frost giant. Either way, Loki told him. "Don't be sorry Pete. I did turn blue, you didn't imagine it. It hadn't happened in a while, I didn't even notice I had transformed again." He started, but Peter cut him off.

"It hasn't happened in a while? Loki are you okay? Is it something wrong?" Peter asked concerned.

Loki laughed for a second looking at the boy. "No, Peter, everything is okay. So, you might not know this, but I am not Asgardian as Thor, you could say I'm adopted." He laughed dryly. Peter's eyes widened as Loki spoke and he crossed his legs sitting on the couch looking at Loki giving him his full attention. "I am a Frost Giant. Many, many years ago there was a war between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants, the last battle took place in Jotunheim, which is the place of origin of my species. Odin and his army defeated them and stole their source of power, and he also stole me. Odin said he found me alone and saw I was too small for a frost giant, so I'm probably not fully a frost giant, guess I'll never know. Anyway, when Odin picked me up I transformed myself into an Asgardian form and stopped being blue. So, he took me to his home." Loki continued to explain everything about his history. He told Peter everything, leaving no detail behind. He told him how Odin only took him to make peace between Asgardians and Frost Giants. When he found out only a few years ago he had almost killed all the Frost Giants, including his biological father, Laufey. And in the meantime, almost killing Thor. Since the kid had asked Loki told him everything, which surprised even himself as he never spoke to anyone about this. Once he finished explaining he looked at Peter to see his reaction, hoping he would not hate him or fear him.

Peter just looked at Loki for a few seconds before saying something. "Well Odin was a crappy man, I'm not so sure I like him."

"What?" Loki was not expecting that. "So, you are not scared or disappointed or anything about me being this dreadful creature?"

"Of course not! I think you are really cool Loki! I mean, a Frost Giant, which sounds so cool and you technically are Asgardian too, because you were raised there. No wonder you are so powerful. That's where you got your powers isn't it? Because Thor doesn't have them."

Loki smiled warmly at the boy. "Yes, I have some powers due to my heritage, but mostly I learned them from Frigga, my mother. Odin might have been an awful father who kidnaps kids, but Frigga will always be my mother and Thor my brother." He paused for a few moments before continuing. "You have already seen my 'Asgardian powers' but do you want to know my Frost Giant powers?" Peter nodded enthusiastically while grinning. "Well, Frost giants can freeze things and cause frostbite on people, they can sustain very low temperatures..." he continued for a while telling him everything and Loki was cheery all night and became even more fond of the boy, he was enjoying the company of someone who actually liked him and wasn't scared of him.

About an hour later Aunt May arrived from work and was awestruck when she saw her nephew and the god of mischief sitting on the couch in the living room while Loki apparently showed up his powers. May still was not used to this friendship. Peter suddenly had an idea to postpone Aunt May's talk, he invited Loki to dinner saying it was because it was already late, and he had to eat, May knew what Peter was doing, regardless she invited and insisted that Loki accompanied them for dinner. Loki tried to decline the offer as politely as he could, but May didn't take no for an answer. He ended up staying. At the beginning it was extremely awkward and uncomfortable, but by the end of the dinner, Loki made sure everyone was laughing and having an enjoyable time. May started to notice Loki might not be a bad guy as he was described a few years ago.

______

The next day Peter woke up early and headed to school before Aunt may had a chance to interrogate him. He told her he was going to be home a little late after school because he had important projects he had to do at the compound and he couldn't miss them. The truth was that he just didn't want to talk about the Flash problem since it was all sorted out, at least for now, so he was procrastinating that talk as much as he could.

After school Peter was heading towards the compound to spend time with Tony and Loki, he was Happy he didn't have any homework for the next day, although he wasn't thrilled his chemistry teacher had given him a group project for next week which would mean he would have to spend his weekend working on it, at least his project was with Mj and Ned, so he would at least be working with people he liked.

He wasn't as talkative to Happy as much as he was the day prior, but he still talked for a bit and Happy, as always, did the minimum talking possible. When they arrived, Peter got off the car while thanking Happy and ran inside the compound. He greeted Tony and told him he was going to spend some time with Loki before heading to the lab to work on the suit with him. Tony agreed to the plan and watched as the kid ran to Loki's room, which he had now after convincing Tony to give him one of the many guests’ rooms to him.

Peter went to Loki's room, knocked and waited for Loki to open his room.

When the two got inside Loki had already smuggled tons of junk food and sweets for both of them. Peter had the idea of introducing Loki to Star Wars. While they were getting the food out and putting the movie the two started chatting.

"How was school, Peter?" Loki asked, opening a bag of chips.

"It was good! Flash didn't annoy me or anyone yet and I don't have homework. Well I do have this project for next week. I must ask Tony if he would mind that Mj or Ned come over the weekend because there is more space to work here, and if he lets me then you will officially meet my friends. They are dying to meet you." Meanwhile Peter was ranting he was putting the movie and was done by the time he stopped ranting. "Okay all done, let's watch this!". They both sat down facing the tv and grabbed the chips and sweets and started the movie.

About an hour into the movie F.R.I.D.A.Y. Interrupted the movie. "Mr. Parker, Loki, Boss has asked for your assistance in the top floor."

"Loki what did you do now?" Peter asked half-jokingly.

When Loki shrugged in confusion as he didn't do anything bad today, the two thought that maybe Tony needed help. Loki and Peter didn't hesitate to run to the top floor thinking something had happened. When they got there, they saw Tony waiting for them next to the elevator.

"What happened Tony? Everything alright? Is there a mission? Do you want to-" Peter's nervously started but was cut off by Tony.

"Kid, everyone and everything is alright, I told you two to come up here because someone decided to visit, and I thought you two were the best option to give her a tour." Tony explained.

As on cue, Shuri appeared from wherever she was, she wanted to cause a good entrance, so she purposely hid until Tony mentioned what happened. "Peter! Loki! Hello!"

"Shuri!!!" Peter exclaimed as he went to hug her friend. Loki did the same.

"What are you doing here? You should have told us you were coming so we could welcome you with a prepared tour or something." Peter said.

"Well, I was at Wakanda, and my dumb brother was being really boring, so I convinced him to let me come to visit my favourite sad white man Bucky and you guys!" Shuri explained and Tony tried to hide his snort of laughter with cough. He was definitely using that nickname on Bucky later. "So, tell me, what has been going on this last week? How is Bucky?"

"Well he is not a sad man, he is actually dating Steve. So that was kind of a shock to a few apparently."

"Ha! Those two had been dating for at least since the war. I was trying my best to not yell at them to kiss already when they were at Wakanda the last few years. Okoye and I had a bet to see when those two lovebirds were finally going to be out. Glad that they made it official." Shuri said.

"Forget about that! I need to tell you how Loki yeeted my classmate! -"

"Bully" Loki interrupted.

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, Loki threw him across the room and yelled yeet!" Peter said excitedly smiling at the memory.

"YOU WHAT?" She screamed at Loki. "I cannot believe you did that without inviting me first!" She laughed.

"I'm sorry, he didn't plan it and I certainly didn't told him to do it. Also, we need to tell you about how awesome Loki's heritage is! He is like a true god, because he is so powerful and awesome!" Peter raved while moving his hands as he spoke.

Loki did an awkward laugh and nodded. "Yeah, Peter will fill you in. And I have to make it up to you about that vine."

"Hell yes you do! I have so many ideas on what prank we could do next-" Shuri continued talking to the two about all her ideas and Peter told her about Loki being a Frost Giant, Shuri thought it was extremely cool and came up with how that could help with their pranks. Neither of them know exactly when Tony left the room and decided to leave the three kids alone to their mischief.

Chapter Text

After Peter and Loki gave Shuri a tour around the compound and showed her where she would be staying, the three of them watched memes for a little bit until Peter had to head home.

Happy drove him to his house and May was waiting for him while watching TV. Peter knew he wouldn't escape aunt May's questioning any longer, so he sighed and accepted his fate. He walked over to where May was sitting and greeted her. When he sat down May turned off the TV and shifted her body, so she was facing him.

"Peter, we need to talk." Aunt May declared.

"Yes, I know." he said numbly.

"A few days ago, I found out that Loki threw a kid across a room because he was bullying you, and not just one time, Tony told me supposedly this has been happening over the last few years. Peter why didn't you tell me?" May cried, grabbing both of Peter's hands with her own. "Don't you trust me?"

"No! May, of course I do. I, I just had everything under control. It was fine."

"Fine? Peter for fucks sake. You were bullied for years and you didn't say anything! That's not fine. Why didn't you tell anyone? A teacher, Tony? Why didn't you defend yourself?"

"You know why, I'm too- I'm too strong, plus if he stopped bullying me he would go to bother someone else who might not be able to take it. I didn't tell anyone because I was handling it." He lied, looking down. "Either way we don't have to talk about this because Flash has stopped after Loki went to the school that day. It is truly all fine now.” he added. He knew Flash was going to go back to his usual self, it wasn't going to take much more time till he believed the Loki thing was a dream and go back to annoying Peter. But of course, Peter didn't tell that to Aunt May.

"You are too good, you know?" May whispered as she hugged her nephew. She was really angry when she first heard about the news, but after that day she was just worried that her little boy had been going through that and she didn't know. "Just promise me something Peter."

"What is it?" He asked, voice was muffled as he had his head on May's neck still hugging her.

"Don't keep things from me again."

"Okay May." he said, he knew that that was impossible to keep, being Spiderman and all, he had had to keep some things from her that were too bad for her liking.

They talked for a while before Peter left to his room to get into his Spiderman suit to go on patrol. He didn't have homework so May let him go on patrol a while longer than usual. When Peter left May texted Tony to tell him that she already spoke to Peter and would keep him updated. When Tony had asked May if Peter was bullied a few days ago, they both became worried they created a group-chat to keep each other updated on any Flash-related news affecting Peter. Natasha and a few other avengers were added to the group two days after when they found out about it.

______

Next day it was Friday and Peter, Ned and Mj headed to the compound to work on their project. Peter had been able to convince Tony to let his friends come and work there, and since he was staying the night he convinced him that Ned stayed too. At first, Tony thought it would be enough with having Peter, Loki and Shuri in one place, and adding another kid wouldn't be a clever idea, but Peter convinced him with his puppy eyes.

When the kids arrived, Tony was waiting for them at the entrance with Steve, Bucky and Natasha. Tony told them it wasn't necessary that they were present but the three of them complained that they wanted to meet his kid's friends. Loki and Shuri were upstairs doing who knows what prank and the rest of the avengers were currently busy.

When Ned and Mj entered the compound and saw half the avengers Mj was shocked and thrilled on the inside but played it cool, as always. She greeted each one individually with courtesy. "Hello Mr. Stark, nice to meet you, thank you so much for letting Peter invite us here. Hello Captain America, it's an honour." She shook hands with both of them and turned to Natasha. She couldn't keep her happiness inside, so she beamed the whole time she introduced herself. "Hello Ms. Romanoff, it's such an honour to meet the Black Widow, I'm a great admirer of your ability to keep up with these dorks." That earned a smile from Natasha.

"I like you, kid, call me Natasha." Natasha smiled and shook her hand before going to greet the others.

Ned was the opposite of relaxed while meeting the Avengers, he went full fanboy mode and Peter knew there was no point in trying to stop Ned from probably making a fool of himself, it was happening either way. Tony went to greet Ned and the boy started ranting and rambling. "Oh my god, Tony Stark, hello, I'm Ned, I'm the man in the chair! Well, Peter's man in the chair. It's so great to finally meet you, Peter talks a lot about you." Peter eyed him when he said that, so he would shut up.

"You are the guy who hacked my suit two years ago. I'm impressed, great job kid." Tony smiled and proceeded to greet Mj. Ned was left standing there with his mouth wide open because Tony Stark had just complimented him. Ned then met Natasha and Steve and practically reacted the same way he did with Tony and Steve and Nat thought he was a good kid.

The three kids went to the third floor where Peter had his lab (yes, he had a lab of his own). His lab, apart from all the equipment he needed to make his webs and other science things, he had a big table he used when he had to do homework or projects. Mj and Ned were in awe and immediately fell in love with the lab. When Peter saw neither Loki or Shuri were around, like they had agreed on, Peter excused himself from his lab to go look for them and left Mj and Ned there. He walked over to Loki's room, where he found Loki and Shuri sitting on the bed while Loki was making magic with his hands and Shuri was writing something down.

"Hey guys, why aren't you at my lab? You were supposed to meet my friends." Peter asked.

"Is it time already? We forgot, sorry." Shuri said as she and Loki got up and followed Peter to his lab.

They entered the lab and Mj and Ned were getting everything ready to start their homework. "Hi guys, finally meet Loki and Shuri, the princess of Wakanda." Peter introduced his friends to his other friends while Shuri waved awkwardly.

"Hi Loki- Mr Loki sir, nice to finally meet you, great fan. I love how you yeeted Flash." Ned said, getting a bit embarrassed.

"Pleasure to meet you, you must be Ned." Loki responded.

"Lokiknowsmyname.” He squealed.

Peter changed the subject before Ned could embarrass himself more. "Alright let’s get started on this project." He turned on the holographic table he had to start working on their assignment. He had forgotten to tell his friends he had that table so Mj was surprised as hell.

"What the fuck Richard!" She exclaimed, quoting a vine.

"YOU KNOW VINES?!" Shuri screamed while walking towards Mj.

"Of course? How else would I cope with this messed up world?” Mj laughed.

"Mood.” Shuri said while waiting for Mj's reaction.

"Oh, I have a feeling we will be great friends you and I." Mj declared while throwing an arm around Shuri.

The three kids worked on their project with Shuri helping them from time to time and Loki just sat there fooling around with stuff in the lab. At the beginning it was fun, they would be working while chatting with Shuri and Loki and making jokes. After two hours everyone's energy was starting to disappear. Loki took a nap and Mj and Ned were already so done with the project they stopped working for a bit. Peter continued working on it for a while longer as he was used to working prolonged periods of time with Tony on their workshop. After four hours after they had started they were all done with life, Loki disappeared to who knows where and Shuri had tried to help but she was getting too bored. She said it was too easy and her brain was turning off, she was trying to help but couldn't help much because she was more advanced than their class was in the subject and it wouldn't end well if the teacher thought Peter cheated on his project.

That's when Tony walked in and saw Mj resting her head on a book, Ned drawing doodles on his notebook and Peter and Shuri were slowly working but they looked dead tired. He thought he could cheer the kids with getting them some food or chips.
"Hey Pete, Shuri and others. You guys have been working real hard on this project, do you want anything?"

"Death." Mj and Ned spoke in unison.

"Mood.” Peter groaned while having his head on his hands.

Shuri made finger guns at them and replied. "Same.”

Tony was lost for words, those kids sure were something. He became worried at the 'death' reply but then became very confused at Shuri's and Peter's reply. "Must have been some weird, dark, sketchy kid's language." he thought to himself.

"Okay, not going to comment on that. I meant, do you guys want something to eat? Anything to drink?" He asked.

"Do you think bleach would make a good smoothie?" Mj mumbled.

"Sounds like a filling dinner." Shuri replied.

Tony looked at Peter in disbelief, he did not just hear that. "Peter, what the fuck-"

"We would love some pepperoni, ham and cheese pizza please!" Peter intervened so Tony wouldn't freak out or question their conversations.

"I'm-I'm not even asking anymore." he sighed. "I'll order your pizzas and Friday will tell you when they arrive." Tony said, walking towards the door to leave as soon as he could. "Those kids-" he started mumbling something, but he was out the door before Peter could hear the end of the sentence.

Tony arrived an hour later with the pizza, he decided to bring that himself to check on the kids. When he got there, they had already cleaned up for the day and Mj was packing her things to go home after the pizza. "Here are your pizzas guys, don't say I'm not cool" he smiled jokingly. "Mj, it was Mj right? Well, if you want to stay for the night you are welcome to, I mean all the kids are staying so might as well add one more kid. There are many guests rooms."

"Thanks Mr. Stark, I would love to, let me text my mom."

The rest of the night the kids watched YouTube videos with Loki, who appeared conveniently when the pizza arrived.

________

The next day the kids woke up around eight thirty A.M and they went to get breakfast in their pjs. Ned of course was wearing some Iron man sweat pants and a Star Wars t-shirt, Mj was wearing some grey sweatpants with a t-shirt with a science pun, Peter had a science pun shirt with the hello kitty pants Tony had gave him a few years ago, he thought it was funny. And Shuri had Avenger's themed sweatpants with a Shirt of a cartoon Black Panther inside a card box. (She got it as soon as her brother became the Black Panther). They all simultaneously forgot that they were dressed like that in the actual avengers’ house when they walked in like that to the kitchen.

Tony, Natasha, and Steve were there and they all laughed at the sight of the four teenagers half asleep in avengers’ themed clothes. Tony ordered Friday to take a picture of them without them knowing. When Ned and Mj realised the situation they quietly cursed under their breath but didn't leave to change since the damage of the avengers seeing them in those clothes was done.

"Nice clothes, kids, if I knew you would all be wearing themed clothing I would have put on my iron man shirt or the Spiderman shirt I have." Tony said amused.

"You are joking, you don't have a Spiderman shirt Tony." Peter said, doing an awkward laugh.

"Don't I?" Tony smirked and carried on talking to the rest of the kids.

Steve and Natasha commented on Shuri's shirt telling her that they loved it and Shuri offered to get them one to annoy her brother, they laughed at said comment. Steve was in charge of breakfast and he was cooking some scrambled eggs and bacon, Natasha was getting the drinks as usual and toasting the bread, Tony was in charge of his coffee, he knew he was not going to survive today with multiple kids without at least two cups of coffee. They were all chatting while working and Peter asked Steve where Bucky was because it was almost impossible to see Steve and Bucky apart, Steve laughed at the comment and answered him that his boyfriend was currently sleeping because he certainly was not a morning person. Natasha started chatting with Mj and Ned while Tony was the one who started speaking with Shuri about upgrading his suit with her help, she seemed to like the idea. At some point Loki appeared, well dressed, in one of his suits, asking for food. Tony and Natasha told him to wait until it was ready like the other kids, Loki was not fond of the comment but decided to not say anything about it, he was that hungry.

A few minutes later the toaster popped out the bread when they were ready and made the usual sound. Loki jumped out of the chair he was sitting on while conjuring his daggers and pointing it at it. "What in Odin's sake is this."

Everyone laughed at the sight and Peter explained. "That’s a toaster Loki..."

"Does it do any harm?!" He asked suspiciously, his daggers still pointing at it.

Peter laughed again. "No, Lokes, this is for the bread, you put it here and when it's done it's a little burned and then you eat it." He got one piece of toast bread and spread some butter on it before giving it to Loki. "Here, try it."

Loki carefully grabbed the toasted bread and gave it a bite. He waited a few seconds before saying. "This is not bad, I like this weird Midgardian thing, but I do not trust the toaster."

_________

The kids and Loki went back to the lab after breakfast to finish the assignment, since they had a good breakfast and a good night sleep the three kids were able to work on it quite easily and fast. Shuri decided not to help them today and instead watched two of the stand-up comedy shows of John Mulaney with Loki. Loki thought the guy was interestingly funny.

Thor arrived to check on them after the first hour to make sure Loki hadn't somehow fucked up things. Thor greeted the children as the over excited puppy he was and immediately recognised what the kids were studying and researching, he told them he saw that on the equivalent of his first year of elementary school in Asgard. Mj and Ned basically begged the god to help them revise their finished project to see if they had any mistakes. Thor gladly accepted and cheerfully went over their project giving feedback on various occasions.

After they were done they exited the lab to wander around the compound. Mj and Shuri spent most of their time quoting memes and recreating them. They were thrilled when Loki joined them in their vine craziness. Meanwhile Peter and Ned talked to each other, well, Ned was fanboying at everything in the compound, so Peter just let him ramble. At one point during the day Shuri offered to show Mj and Ned the video she took at Wakanda with the help of Peter and Loki when they did the floor is lava prank. Mj and Ned watched the video with great enthusiasm and begged Shuri to send them that video, so they could re-watch it.

Later that day the kids met some of the other avengers. They met Bucky, who was friendlier than he looked, they met Sam and Rhodey, who were going out for a coffee run so they couldn't chat much and Bruce, who spent some time talking to Ned and Peter about science stuff. While those two nerds were talking to Bruce, Mj, Shuri and Loki were waiting for them, Natasha showed up and talked to them, she had taken a liking to them and even offered them to show them how to fight properly someday. Shuri, even though she had experience in fighting was happy with the offer and so was Mj.

Around late afternoon, Happy drove Mj and Ned to their houses, some of the avengers were out of the compound as soon as the extra kids left. Sam, Rhodey Thor and Bruce had gone out to a government meeting they had, they went on behalf of the avengers. Tony had left the compound with Pepper to get an early dinner. So, Peter and Shuri were currently hanging out with Steve and Bucky while eating chips, which is what Peter had basically eaten all week and he thought he had to start to eat healthier at some point. Natasha was in her room and Loki, who usually loved getting attention, was taking a break from socialising and was also in his bedroom.

Steve and Bucky were talking to the kids about the weird references they had done all day, and Steve was recalling how different it was from his time. While Bucky was just trying to understand some sense of them, he was still confused as to why earlier Shuri had seen a picture of a duck and called it a chicken, she had said look at all this chicken and it was a duck... a DUCK! Bucky couldn't process how that could make sense. Peter tried to explain it to him, but Bucky was too tired to understand the gen z slangs.

They talked and joked for a few minutes until the alarms started blaring everywhere in the compound and the voice of Friday could be heard around the entire place announcing there was an intruder that had gotten inside. Friday made the entire place go into lockdown, covering the windows with a layer of metal on top. As soon as that happened Steve and Bucky immediately got into fighting position, shielding the kids, Natasha, who jumped out of her room when the whole chaos started had appeared with multiple knives and weapons and Loki appeared from who knows where to go and protect his friends.

Friday announced that the intruder had somehow bypassed her systems and was going up the elevator.
The remaining avengers waited in fighting mode as the light in the elevator moved. A few moments later the elevator dinged, and the doors opened, revealing the intruder.

Chapter Text

The elevator doors opened, Steve and Natasha couldn't believe their eyes.

"Clint?" They both said, sounding confused.

Clint walked out of the elevator while eating a donut and waving at them. "Hello everyone"

Loki disappeared from view as soon as he saw Peter nor Shuri were in no danger.

"Clint? Great to see you. How did you managed to enter? You aren't the tech genius so how did you get this place into a damn lockdown?" Steve said as he went to greet Clint with a handshake.


"I tried to enter with my last ID card that Tony gave me but apparently that was an outdated version, so that might have been why Friday went into a lockdown, it wasn't technically a break in, so she didn't know what to do." Clint shrugged and took another bite off the donut. He walked towards Natasha smiling. "Hey Tasha, long time no see."

"Clint, it's great to see you" Natasha smiled, walking into a hug with her best friend. "How are Laura and the kids?"

"Oh, they are wonderful, little Nathaniel just turned three. Lila and Cooper are so big now and they never stop asking about aunt Nat."

Natasha laughed. "Those little devils, I miss them." She saw Clint was confused at seeing the fresh faces. "Let's introduce you to them, this is Peter, also known as Spiderman, great kid, big nerd." She pointed to Peter who waved shyly at Clint. "Next to Peter, that is Shuri, she is a damn genius and the princess of Wakanda, but spend a day with her and Peter and you will never want to hear the word 'meme' again." She said the last part jokingly, pointing at Shuri and giving the kids a small smile. "That is Steve's boyfriend Bucky, yes, the same Bucky who was Steve's best friend from the war and who also was the reason Steve caused that airport fight two years ago, that Bucky is also the one who happened to be the Winter Soldier, but I'll explain that later." She pointed at Bucky who smiled awkwardly while Steve held his hand reassuringly.

"And you definitely remember me, don't you, Clinton?" Loki said as he appeared in the room again. Clint immediately recognised the voice and in no time had his bow and arrow he carried everywhere aimed at the god.

"Why is this guy here. Shouldn't he be dead?" Clint said, each word full of hatred. He wasn't fond of when he was brainwashed by Loki.

“Yeah, supposed you’d think that. I get it, your pea brain got confused by my deaths, so which of my deaths did you believe? Was it when I fell to space that one time on Asgard? Or when I faked my death when the elves attacked? Or that one time Hela threw me from the bifrost? oh yeah, or that one time where Thanos snapped my neck?” Loki said sounding uninterested, then he paused, eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, you weren’t there for those deaths.” He said to himself.

Natasha slowly grabbed the arrow who was ready to shoot at the god and put it aside. "And this is Loki, as you already know. He is apparently good now and we won’t harm him unless provoked, he is known as a drama queen and usually appears and disappears from the rooms when he pleases but thats pretty much all he does. By the way, he wasn't responsible for the New York alien attack that time. I will also explain later." Natasha explained to Clint, who was not taking the information well, he had too many questions. Steve was going to say something when Friday interrupted.

"Manual override accepted. This place is no longer in lockdown." As Friday finished speaking and the metal around the windows was disappearing, the window was suddenly smashed broken.

_______

Tony was having a dinner date with Pepper at a very expensive and glamorous restaurant. Him and Pepper were sitting in a two people booth in a corner, so they could have some peace and not get recognised as much.

They were half way in their dinner date, Tony had ordered a steak while Pepper had ordered some lobster. The two were having happy small talk about themselves and their day.

"How are you enjoying this so far?" Tony questioned with a smile.

"It's been good, I admire you didn't forget again or had to postpone it." She said.

"That was one time, Pep, and I remind you, I was saving the world. I had to go to space for a while, it had to be postponed." He countered.

"Fine, don't do that again. I have to admit, I'm impressed."

"You see, Pep, I am still good at planning dates. I told you were going to enjoy yourself. A break from all the work and stress is what you needed." Tony declared as he sipped from his glass of wine.

"How is your kid doing? Did he had any trouble related to being back from space?" Pepper asked, small smile formed in her face when she saw Tony’s face when he heard the words 'your kid'.

"He is not my kid Pep, and he is doing just fine, he already invited all his friends to the compound. They are literally four friends including Shuri and Loki. The Mj girl seemed nice, she got along with Shuri too well, and-" Tony was cut off from his talk when Pepper laughed. "What?"

"You are such a father Tony, it's adorable."

"No, I'm not"

"Tony, you have literally called him your kid when introducing him to the avengers." She looked at him unimpressed.

"Who told you that?" He said sheepishly.

"I have my way of knowing."

"Yeah but-" Tony started but stopped talking when he saw an alert on his phone. He was immediately shocked, and his eyes went considerably wide. Pepper noticed something was wrong.

"Tony what happened? Everything alright?"

"Pep, I have to go, Fri just alerted me the compound went into lockdown, Peter is there..."

Pepper smiled empathetically. "Go, we will rearrange this date later, go save your kid." She said as Tony was already forming his suit and flying to the compound.

Tony was flying in his suit while he called Rhodey.

"Hello? Tony?" Rhodey answered.

"Rhodey, get Thor and the rest at the compound, it went on lockdown. Peter is there." Tony gulped with worry, putting maximum power on the suit's thrusters and manually stopping the lockdown with the help of Friday and his suit.

"We are on our way." Rhodey stated as he hung up.

___________

As soon as the window was smashed, the pieces of glass went flying inside. Everyone covered themselves to avoid being cut by it. Seconds later, Tony appeared in full iron man suit with his weapons ready. "Where the fuck is my kid?"

Peter appeared from behind the couch. "I'm here, Tony. I'm fine." he stammered.

Tony went to hug him, checking for any injuries. "Kid you alright? What happened? Why was this place on lockdown?"

"The kid is fine, everything is alright, don't worry Stark." Bucky answered, dusting off pieces of glass on him.

"Then why was this place on lockdown?" Tony asked again.

"Because someone decided to come and say hi." Natasha said pointing at Clint, whom Tony didn't notice he was there all this time.

"Clint?"

"Hi." Clint said.

At that moment Thor, Rhodey, Sam and Bruce arrived at the room, Thor ready to fight, looking for any signs of danger.

"Tony? What is happening?" Bruce asked, walking towards him.

"False alarm guys, Clint decided to show up. And somehow activated the lockdown."

_______

The group had decided to go to another room where it wasn't full of broken glass to catch up with everyone. They all got something to drink and headed to the movie room, which surprisingly no one uses because they all prefer the couch. Clint was chatting with everyone and getting to know the new and recent additions of the avengers. Natasha explained him everything that he needed to know that he missed when he left, she told him about the Loki wasn't responsible for the alien thing and other things, like where was Wanda and was had happened to Vision a few weeks ago. Steve was telling Tony and the rest who weren't there when the lockdown thing happened, about what had occurred and why apparently Friday went into lockdown. Peter talked a bit with Clint but mainly spent it with Shuri and Loki. Clint talked to Steve and Bucky and Natasha the most, showing them pictures of his kids.
That was until Sam came up to Clint.

"You know man? You should feel lucky Tony didn't kill you or anything when he came barging in today."

"Why?" Clint asked.

"Well, because he was prepared to kill anyone after he found out his kid was in the middle of this, once he found out there was a lockdown and Peter was inside he went full dad mode. Pepper and I think it's adorable. Well, I didn't talk to Pepper, Rhodey did, but still, we have the same opinion on that." He laughed.

Clint just frowned. "What?"

"Huh?"

"Wait? Peter? As in Spiderman? That is Tony's kid? Since when does Tony have a kid?" Clint questioned.

"That was my reaction, he didn't tell us much." Steve answered. Tony and Peter were walking towards them as they were finishing talking to Bruce.

"Hello." Tony said, lifting his glasses up his nose.

"You have a kid?" Peter is your kid?" Clint said dumbfounded.

Tony looked at Peter with a smile. "Yeah, this is my kid." Peter smiled. "No, I won’t be taking any questions, or else this would feel like a press conference, yuck."

________
Everyone was in their usual chatter with each other and everyone was having fun. Until Thor, who had been impatient to know, asked Clint the question everyone was thinking.

“Hey Clint, how come you weren’t around when we were fighting Thanos two weeks ago. I mean, I’m sure you found out about everything with that Midgardian thing you call technology. Where were you?” Thor asked, looking at him in his usual confused puppy face. Everyone stopped their small talk and turn their heads to face Clint, they all were curious to know.

“So, here’s the thing, before I tell you guys, know that I thought this was a small shitty alien attack, I didn’t know the universe was at stake.” He paused, looking at the group.

“Okay? Now tell us Clint.” Bruce said.

“So, I was at my house, some of you know it, and it’s usually far from any city or anything that can cause trouble. I didn’t hear much at first. But then one day I was playing catch with Cooper and Lila when I heard what sounded like some explosions or a fight in the distance. So, I got really annoyed because I had just retired for the second time, so I told the kids that everything was fine and then ignored it.” Clint explained.

“How did you do to ignore that when you could hear explosions in the distance, knowing you could help?” Steve asked.

“Easy, I took my hearing aids off.” Clint shrugged.

Steve looked at Clint with disbelief and disappointment. Clint felt like the whole nation of freedom judged him for a second. He wasn’t used to the Steve who would put on his Captain America facade at him.

“Look Steve, I’m old, I am retired, I have three small kids and that is enough work for me now. I thought it wasn’t a big deal. But the threat is over so it’s good now.”

Tony just looked at him and then nodded. “Enjoy your old retired life, old man.” The clapped him in the shoulder then walked away.

________

The next day Peter had spent the day with Shuri and Clint while Loki was away because his brother wanted to show him around the city. Shuri and Peter had found out that Clint, due to the fact that he had kids of his own, was mildly introduced to the meme culture and of course Peter and Shuri made a bet on who could make him say more references. This time, Peter won. Shuri had accepted her defeat when Clint understood and quoted a vine reference. It happened when Peter dropped Clint’s arrow accidentally. They were walking, and Peter tried to grab it, when it fell Clint, knowing full well about the bet, just said at him seriously. ‘Stop, you could have dropped my croissant!”. Needless to say, their expressions were priceless. It wasn’t an entirely accurate situation for that vine, but either way they loved it.

Clint ended up liking Peter and Shuri, it reminded them of their kids in a way, but not exactly. Even though he had met them for less than two days he felt as he had officially taken the title of weird uncle of the two.

______

Later that day Peter left to his house to spend some time with his aunt May and tell her all about his weekend. May would not be pleased about some things but the two of them usually liked to gossip about almost everything.

May cooked some pasta for dinner and the two sat down in the couch, with a movie in the background while May talked to Peter about her weekend and Peter about his eventful one.

Chapter Text

The following week went by with no interesting events of any sort, there wasn't any avenger-level threats or missions. Peter's school life also went by uneventfully, except when he turned in his project with Ned and Mj, which they got an A for. But apart from that the rest of the week passed by normally. He did his usual routine every day: wake up, get ready, have breakfast with May occasionally and then head to school for eight boring hours. He then would go to the compound for a few hours to spend it with Tony, Loki and Shuri mostly, then he would go back to his house, do his homework and have dinner with May, then if he had time he would go on patrol. He did the same thing for every day of the week.

On Friday afternoon Peter was extremely joyful because later that day he would be going to the compound and was going to spend the entire weekend there because May had to go on a business trip and Tony offered to let the kid stay with him and May had agreed. After all, Peter was staying there most of the time already, so it’s not that like it would change from the other hundreds of times he stayed there. 

He finished school and went to his house to spend the afternoon with aunt May before she left. The two of them watched a movie and chatted before Peter headed to his room to pack his bags for the weekend. This was going to be a fun weekend because him, Shuri and Loki had plans for everyone, and those plans meant a prank of some sort. He packed some pjs, some clothes, his toothbrush, his Spiderman suit, because he never left without it, and some other things for his weekend trip. He finished packing and he went to say goodbye to May, wished her a good trip, then Happy texted him saying he was already at the door downstairs to take him to the compound and didn't want to wait any longer. That being said, Peter hurriedly went running downstairs to greet Happy.

The car ride wasn't as talkative as usual, because Peter was texting with Shuri and Loki in a group chat they had created soon after Loki learned how to use a 'Midgardian cell phone' as he called it. Happy was just happy that he could have some peace and quiet for a while.

Once they arrived Peter thanked Happy for the ride and headed inside to find where his mentor was. He asked Friday where Tony was at the moment and when Friday informed him that he was currently at the living room Peter got inside the elevator and headed there.

Peter arrived at the living room and saw Tony was with some of the avengers, the first thing he noticed was that Wanda and Vision were there, they must had returned from their vacation getaway. Tony was chatting with Bruce and Natasha, while Clint, Wanda and Vision were talking, probably catching up from the last time they saw each other.

Peter walked up to them and waved shyly at Wanda and Vision, since the kid barely knew them. Then he turned around and greeted Tony, Bruce and Natasha with a hug. "Hey, Natasha, Tony, Bruce, what are you guys doing?" He asked smiling.

"Hey, kid, we were just talking about how you were going to stay here, the team was telling me how they are dreading it to have you here again for the weekend." Tony joked as he ruffled the kid's hair. "Just kidding, kiddo, we all love to have you here."

"Yeah, we love to have you here, who else can I talk about science when Tony or Thor are busy?" Bruce added.

"So, what are your plans for the weekend, Peter? Are you going to train with us tomorrow? Or just relaxing with Loki and Shuri?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know, maybe a bit of both, might go training with you guys if Tony lets me." Peter answered Natasha, sounding hopeful.

"I'll think about it kid." Tony replied.

Clint stopped talking to Wanda and Vision and went towards Peter. "Hey squirt, ready for a fun weekend?" Clint asked Peter, giving him another weird nickname. Since they had met last week Clint had started calling Peter different nicknames each time.

"Hey, Bird Man." Peter said trying not to laugh at Clint. "Yeah, I'm ready for this weekend, it's going to be fun."

"From what I an understanding you haven't met Wanda or Vision all that well right? They were telling me the other day how they've barely spoken to you."

"Yeah, well it has been a busy month, with the Thanos thing, and then they went on a vacation, we haven't had time to talk much." Peter shrugged.

"Well, this weekend you can get to meet them, Wanda is interested in meeting Tony's kid." Clint said.

Peter sighed, he didn't understand how these people still didn't understand that he wasn't Tony's kid, it was so obvious, right? Although he was not going to lie, it has been fun how Tony and the few people that do know they aren't related have kept the joke going. "Yeah... well, I'm going to get something to eat, see you around, Katniss."

"That was a low blow kid." Clint said, faking being offended but smiling.

Peter went to the kitchen and saw Tony was making something. He frowned confused, it wasn't common to see Tony cooking. "Hey Tony, what are you doing?"

"Oh, hey kiddo, since you arrived I thought you might be hungry, so I thought I could make you a sandwich, because if I tried to cook something I might end up burning the whole building." He laughed dryly. "That would not go well." He finished making the sandwich and handed it to Peter "You hungry?"

"Yes, Thank you, Tony!" Peter beamed and started devouring his food. "This is really good, and you didn't burn anything with this so that’s a plus." He teased.

Tony just squinted his eyes at him looking mildly offended, joking of course. "Well kid, good you liked the sandwich, don't get use to them ok? I’m pretty sure I will mess up if I cook again" Tony joked.

"Okay, Tony"

_______

The rest of the afternoon went by quickly, Shuri and Loki appeared shortly after Peter arrived. The three joined the Avengers for another movie night, as it was getting common around there lately, and then at around midnight Peter was tired after a long day at school, so he called it a night and headed to his room.

The next morning Peter woke up earlier than usual, he went to meet Loki and Shuri in Shuri's room. They had agreed to meet there to talk about their plan for the prank they wanted to make so it could run smoothly and make it efficient. Loki was already there when Peter arrived, but, to Peter's astonishment, Loki wasn't in his usual suits or Asgardian outfits, instead he was wearing some fancy sweatpants and a regular t-shirt. Shuri was there too, as it was her room after all, she was still in her pjs.

"Hello, Shuri, Loki, good morning." He looked at Loki and laughed "Nice clothes, Lokes."

Loki scoffed at the comment and turned around to face Shuri and ignore Peter. "See, Shuri, this is why I don't wear these clothes. I told you." He said with a hurt expression.

"No, no, no, Lokes, c'mon I was just joking, it suits you. You look more relaxed...." Peter apologised.

"Pay up." Loki said. Completely changing his hurt expression to his mischievous grin.

"Wha- what?" Peter squinted his eyes as he frowned.

"Aw damn! I thought he would continue with the sass." Shuri said, giving Loki ten bucks.

"Told you." Loki smiled mischievously as he took the money he didn't need.

"What the hell is going on?!" Peter demanded, crossing his arms. He understood that whatever bet just happened, he was a part of it and he did not like that.

"Princess and I were talking about things, and then you came up as a topic of conversation, long story short, she said that you have a lot of sass when you are amongst friends and if you had the chance, would end up going full sass on me. I disagreed, I told her that you are too nice and would end up apologising the second I seemed hurt at the sass comments, therefore a bet was made, and I won. However, these clothes are comfortable, but I wouldn't wear them in public, I don't understand how you people manage to be seen in this." Loki explained.

"Wow. Rude!" Peter said jokingly pretending to be hurt. "Can't believe my two friends are making bets about me."

"Yes, but to be fair, you had school and we were bored, so we made a few bets." Shuri said. "Now, we must talk about the important things here. Loki, do you have everything you need set for the prank?" Shuri questioned and Loki nodded seriously. "Peter-man, you got the cameras ready? If you can climb the ceiling of the room, we can get a better shot than if I were filming from down here."

"Yes Shuri, got the cameras ready and my webbing just in case...." Peter paused for a few seconds looking unsure. "But are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, the avengers could kill us for this. Worse, Tony will kill me for this."

"Relax, we got it under control, Loki has everything under control and I have devices I designed last week to help us clean up the mess, it will be fine." Shuri assured Peter giving him a smile and a shoulder pat.

"Shuri is right, now let’s go set everything up for our pranks." Loki said.

"Wait, are we pranking Steve, Tony, Natasha or Sam first?" Shuri asked while getting ready.

"I say we prank from least evil to worst, or do we prank them from less likely to be killed first?" Loki asked.

"Well, Tony will kill us, so he will be last, Steve might be the easiest so let’s start with him, Sam is the least intimidating, so he will go next, Natasha will be pranked next." Peter said, thinking of the most logical way their plan could work. After all, so many pranks in a day was a new record for them.

"Steve, Sam, Romanoff and then Tony, seems like a plan." Loki said while nodding.

"Great! Let's go get ready then. Bucky knows of the prank for Steve and he is more welcome to be a part of it." Shuri said excitedly.

"I'm just saying, if we get in trouble I'm blaming you guys." Peter mumbled.

"Yeah yeah, now let’s go Peter-man." Shuri replied dismissively.

________

It was ten in the morning and most of the avengers were in the living room doing nothing, who would have said the earth's mightiest heroes were so lazy on their free time. Natasha and Wanda were talking on a couch while Tony was chatting with Bruce and Thor. Clint was talking to Vision and Rhodey, and Sam was napping in another couch. Steve and Bucky were not on the living room yet, because Bucky had woken late and they were getting breakfast.

Peter, Shuri and Loki walked in the common room trying to act normal, which in this case failed. Peter was a bit more nervous than usual, Loki was, well Loki, and Shuri was slightly smiling. Lucky for them all the avengers were too busy to notice. Until Shuri spoke.

"Hello everyone, do any of you know where Steve is?"

"Breakfast.” Clint answered then continued his conversation.

Tony on the other hand, knew to be aware of the three. "Why? What are you guys up to?" He demanded, looking at Peter specifically.

"Nothing!" Peter answered a tad too fast. "I mean, we just wanted to ask him something..."

"Sure you do.” Tony said, showing no signs of actually believing it.

In that moment, Steve walked in the room with Bucky. Not even a second after the kids noticed, they turned around and Friday started playing a song.

'Who's strong and brave here to save the American Way?
Who's vows to fight like a man for what's right, night and day?'

As soon as Steve heard the song his face turned pink in embarrassment for a second before making his face go stiff. "What is this! Take that song off!" Steve demanded, while Bucky was snickering in the back trying not to laugh.

'Who will campaign door to door for America?
Carry the flag shore to shore for America?
From Hoboken to Spokane?'

The song continued as Steve was turning redder and covering his face with his hands. Bucky started laughing hysterically and soon the rest of the team followed with quiet laughs or smiles they couldn't keep in. Except Tony who was laughing as much as Bucky.

'The Star-Spangled Man with a plan!'

"THE STAR-SPANGLED MAN WITH A PLAN!" Peter, Shuri, Loki and Bucky sung at the top of their lungs. The chorus was the best part in their opinion. Bucky was smirking evilly at Steve as he sung it.

Steve glared at Bucky before turning to Tony. "This isn't funny, Stark." Steve mumbled.

"Oh god, this is funny to me, but I didn't do this." Tony said between laughs.

"Turn it off.”

"Fine, Friday, stop playing the song."

"Unable to do that sir" Friday responded. The kids and Loki were giggling at this point.

"What do you mean you can't turn it off?" Tony said impatiently.

"Protocol Spangled Sass makes me unable to turn this specific song off unless it's authorised by the ones that created it sir." Friday replied.

Tony glared at Peter. "Turn it off.” he said, trying not to laugh again while the song continued playing.

"Friday stop playing the song please." Bucky said. Friday paused the song immediately.

"You were in this too!" Steve said unbelievably. "You know I hate it!"

"It was a very funny joke, Stevie, you should have seen your face!" Bucky exclaimed.

"I hate you." Steve grumbled.

"Love you too.” Bucky smiled as he placed a kiss on Steve's nose.

The rest of the avengers were too busy laughing at what had just happened, Sam was woken up seconds before the whole deal, and he was thankful he was there to witness it.

Tony was stunned and fascinated that they had hacked Friday to make her not listen to Tony's demand. He walked to the kids who stopped smiling and became serious when they saw him coming. "You three were able to hack into Friday." He stated.

"Sorry." Peter said quietly.

"Technically it was me, Peter and Bucky, Loki still needs a lot to learn from our technology." Shuri answered.

"I'm impressed." Tony said.

"What do you- what do you mean?" Peter frowned. "You aren't mad, are you?"

"No kid, this was funny, and you proved to be smart ass geniuses once again." Tony ruffled the kid's hair and smiled.

Peter beamed, and he was no longer nervous. "That's so great Tony! I was so worried you were going to kill us or something, but you are happy, this, this was not what I was expecting, it's great! We actually have it all recorded! We can share it with you! Although we need to make a copy because Bucky wanted one, he was a major help with this-" Peter stopped talking and did a nervous laugh. "I'm rambling again sorry."

"It's fine Spiderling" Tony said with a warm smile. He thought it was adorable.

________

The next prank happened only a few hours later. For this prank the kids had go to Thor's assistance, they had to make sure Thor wasn't going to kill them for stealing his axe. Once Thor had given the three permission to use the Stormbreaker, they left to start their plan. Thor had only trusted them with it because he knew his brother couldn't lift it so there wouldn't be any severe harm, Shuri couldn't lift it easily so she wouldn't be holding it much, and Thor trusted Peter with his life, if the storm-breaker thought Peter was worthy enough not only to pick it up, but so easily, Thor knew the kid was worthy.

Their plan started, Peter walked in the room where Clint and Sam were, he was holding the Storm Breaker and spinning it around. Neither Sam or Clint knew he could pick it up, in fact, only Tony, Bruce, Thor, Shuri and Loki knew about it.

"Hey guys, what are you doing?" Peter asked, throwing the axe in the air and catching it. "Like my new prop? It's for a cosplay of Thor."

"Wow Peter, that looks very realistic. Good job kid." Sam smiled at him amazed.

"That is great squirt it looks really cool!" Clint said, calling him yet another weird nickname.

Peter smiled, looking at the corner of the room for a second, seeing if Loki was there yet. Once he saw Loki was there with the camera ready he continued with the plan. Although he changed it, only slightly. He knew the prank was supposed to be for Sam, but then Clint was standing there...
"Hey Clint, want to hold it? It's great!" Peter asked with his puppy eyes.

"Sure thing!" Clint said, walking to Peter and extending an arm so Peter handed him the 'fake' axe.

As soon as Clint held the axe he felt a strong force pulling him downwards. Clint fell to the ground, arm first and then the rest of his body did a splat sound. Sam was laughing and had his eyes wide as he came to the understanding that Peter could hold the mighty weapon. Clint stood up while rubbing his arm looking slightly hurt, probably his ego got hurt when he fell, but then he chuckled a bit.

"Wow kid, I would be laughing right now, but I'm too busy processing that you can lift that damn thing!" Clint exclaimed. "Awesome"

Peter was laughing nervously at Clint's words. "I mean, it's nothing."

"Unbelievable, kid." Sam added walking to him. "Who knows you can pick that thing up?"

"Not many people, just Tony, Thor, Bruce, Loki, Shuri and you guys." Peter shrugged.

"Please prank the rest of them like you did with Clint." Sam pleaded jokingly.

"Hell yes! I would love to see Tasha's face at it." Clint said.

Loki appeared from his hiding and Shuri entered the room because she was eavesdropping. "Sounds like a plan." They both said at the same time.

Sam and Clint jumped when the two appeared. "Where did you guys come from!?" Sam yelled.

"Places" they both responded.

"Okay that's getting creepy" Peter told his friends with a smile.

Shuri laughed. "It's because we are connected" she joked. "But, that is a good idea of them, we can prank them some other time. But not today."


________

Shuri, Loki and Peter were ready for their third prank of the day, they had decided that they were pranking Tony first, because he was at his workshop working on his suit, which was where their plan was supposed to take place. For this prank Shuri had created the gadgets that were supposed to work combined with the magic of Loki.

Loki and Shuri were just outside Tony's workshop while Peter had silently climbed to the ceiling, so he could record the whole thing. Peter had been reluctant at first, this was Tony they were talking about and Peter didn't like to prank his mentor. But Shuri and Loki had convinced him. And that is why he was now stuck at the ceiling with a camera waiting for Shuri and Loki to do their part.

The unaware Tony was working on his suit, as he had been for an hour now. He was in a tank top and his work jeans, which he always used as he didn't care if they got dirty. The workshop was kind of a mess since there was oil, spare iron man suits parts and other things lying around. It was the perfect place for their plan.

At Loki's signal, Peter started recording, a few seconds later with Loki's magic, Shuri's gadgets were placed inside the workshop and started making soap bubbles at a fast rate. After a few seconds one fourth of the place was covered in bubbles.

Tony noticed and became instantly annoyed. "What the hell is this" he scoffed. "I swear to god Peter, this isn't funny." He mumbled as he tried to walk out of there before he was consumed in bubbles.

He was unsuccessful, Tony was stuck in a giant space of bubbles, he couldn't see the entrance any more. When Peter didn't see where Tony was due to the bubbles, he called it off and shouted at Shuri, so she stopped it and reversed it.

"Fine! I'll stop it!" Shuri said, clicking a button and the bubble gadgets started sucking the bubbles in and were cleaning the place.

A minute later there were barely any soap bubbles and Shuri and Loki were standing in front of an angry Tony. He had still bubbles in his clothes and some in his hair.

"What the hell.” Tony cursed glaring at the kids in front of him.

"Sorry Mr Stark." Shuri said suppressing a laugh.

"At least your place is clean now." Loki interrupted grinning.

"You little shit." Tony sighed before breaking into smile.

________


After Tony's prank the kids decided it was best to leave the next prank for another day. Tony hadn't gotten angry, but he didn't enjoy it. Peter apologised, and Tony immediately forgave him because he couldn't be mad at Peter, especially when he told Tony that he wasn't sure about the prank at first.

Now it was Sunday, and the kids were getting ready for their final prank. It was early in the morning and they had everything ready. For their last prank, they were pranking Natasha, Peter wanted out of this one because he said he still felt bad about Tony. So Shuri offered herself to record the thing while Loki did his magic and Peter could stand by in this prank. Peter was fine with just watching and agreed cheerfully to their new arrangement.

They went to look for Natasha, making sure she was alone, or at least not with most of the avengers. They found her in the training room with Clint and Steve. Shuri was getting her camera ready and looking for somewhere discrete to record, meanwhile Loki was waiting for her signal. Peter was watching nearby on his favourite place, the corner of the ceiling.

Steve left the room and Shuri knew it was time. Loki closed the door and started freezing the room. When Loki and Peter had told Shuri about Loki's origins of a Frost Giant, Shuri had pleaded to freeze something, like a room. So, the three thought freezing a place as a prank would be a clever idea.

When Natasha and Clint saw the room was freezing, Natasha became aware something was wrong and she got into a defence position and so did Clint. The two heard a laugh, which they knew it was Loki and they cursed to themselves.

Minutes later Loki started to reverse the freezing effect and it was starting to go back to normal. Shuri stopped recording and her and Peter left to the living room where everyone was and pretended to act normal. Loki disappeared again.

A few minutes later Clint and Natasha came into the room glaring at Shuri and Peter.

“That wasn’t funny.” Clint said

“It sure was.” Shuri replied.

“What is going on? Kids, another prank? Really?” Rhodey asked.

“Those little rascals froze the gym while we were training.” Natasha pointed to Shuri while talking.

Tony raised an eyebrow and looked at Peter. “Peter?”

“I wasn’t part of this! I swear. You can ask the rest.” Peter mumbled defensively.

“Fine I believe you kid.”

“How did you even manage to freeze an entire room in seconds?” Clint asked confused, frowning.

“Loki.” Shuri and Peter shrugged.

“Well whatever, you two better watch your back. Because Tasha and I are the best at pranking. And there will be a payback.” Clint mentioned as he looked at Natasha.

“Hey, I didn’t say I was joining this... prank war you are making.” Natasha pointed out. Clint looked at her with pleading eyes. “Fine.” she half smiled.

“Yass! You smurfs better watch out.” he joked.

A familiar yet odd voice interrupted them.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I’m afraid that will have to wait.”

Everyone turned around to see Strange had conjured a portal and had appeared at the living room. Tony was the first one to talk.

“Strange? What are you doing here?”

Chapter Text

Everyone was looking at Stephen waiting for an explanation as to why he had appeared out of nowhere. He was in his fighting robes and had his usual red cloak with him.

"I need your help." Stephen looked at the Avengers. They all had a please-elaborate look on their face. Stephen sighed. "I was training a few people at Kamar Taj in my spare time when one of them tried to open a portal to the mirror dimension. It's like a dimension that looks like this one but whatever happens in there can't make any harm here, that's why we keep threats and beasts trapped there. However, when they opened the mirror dimension, they accidentally let out these alien creatures and at the same time created a portal to the city making the aliens disappear through there. Will you help?" Stephen asked.

"Sure thing, Gandalf, give us three minutes to gear up. And we will take the Quinn Jet. It's fast." Tony said, motioning the rest to go get ready while he made his nanotechnology suit assemble around him.

"I can create a portal there, it's faster." Stephen spoke sternly.

Tony nodded firmly looking as Steve came back with his new black vibranium shield and his new uniform, followed by Bucky in his outfit with at least four guns, a couple of knives and possible grenades. Wanda and Vision were ready to fight as well as Rhodey and Sam. Natasha came a minute later in her typical one-piece black suit and her typical Black Widow weapons. Thor never left the room and just summoned his axe and was ready for battle. Peter and Clint were the last to arrive in their gear. He had his Spiderman suit on and Clint had his arrows and was muttering something about how he was supposed to be retired. Bruce was staying there because the Hulk still hadn't made an appearance therefore he couldn't help at the fight.

"Tony? Can Doctor Strange send Shuri somewhere safe? I am sure she could help but she doesn't have her gear here." Peter asked shyly, looking at his friend.

Shuri was about to protest when Stephen nodded and opened a portal to what appear to be Wakanda and made her go through. Before he closed the portal, he told her "Be safe, we will be back." Then closed it.

At that moment Loki appeared at the room in his black suit, having no idea what was happening. "What are you all doing? Brother, why are you in your fighting gowns-" he stopped as he saw Stephen. "You!" He said in disgust.

Stephen looked annoyed. "Why is he here? I can't deal with him right now. Is he an immediate threat?" He questioned.

"Why is the wizard here!?" Loki snarled at his brother. He was not fond of the last time he was on earth and encountered the wizard.

Peter interrupted before Loki tried to commit murder or something similar. "Loki, we are under attack by aliens, Stephen asked for our help. You two can hate each other later. Will you help us or are you staying here?" Peter was different when he was on his Spiderman mode. He was managing the whole situation surprisingly well and was more mature about than some.

"I'll help.. I guess." Loki said making his usual Asgardian fighting gowns appear. In seconds he had his green cape and his helmet with the horns. If he was going to fight he was doing it with style.

"Good." Peter told him. He looked at Stephen. "He won’t be giving you any trouble right now, he is on the same team now. We can discuss it later. But Mr- Doctor Strange, can you tell us about the aliens to see what we are dealing with?"

Tony was speechless, he was proud of his kid dealing with the entire situation. He smiled fondly at the kid before going back to his emotionless look he carried when he was going to fight.

Stephen started explaining about the aliens. "They are called The Shakri, humanoid like species, grey, wrinkled skin with black mouths. They are like pests, always travel in groups of seven and are known for their technology of cubes. That means, they carry these black small cubes, that at first sight appear to do nothing but can cause many injuries if someone is really close to them. So, watch out for them, they can't be destroyed with guns but blasting them off should do the trick."

"What can the cubes cause?" Natasha asked with worry on her voice.

"Depending on the frequency they use, it can vary from temporary paralysis, headaches, sound waves that knock you off, and the worst-case scenario is they can make one go into cardiac arrest for the humans, so everyone except the gods and Vision need to be extremely careful."

Everyone's expressions turned into worry but nodded in understanding as Strange opened a portal.

"Where are they attacking?"

"Central New York" Stephen answered.

"Why the fuck is it always there?" Peter murmured.

"We should just move back there, easier you know?" Steve joked.

__________

The Avengers crossed the portal and were now in the middle of New York City. Where the former Stark Tower was, and where the last couple of invasions had happened.  The Shakri were there and the avengers were outnumbered by dozens of dozens of the aliens. As Strange had said, they were all scattered in groups of seven.

"Point Break, Hawk Brain, and Vision, you head that way and make sure they don't leave the main roads, keep them inside the perimeter." Tony said as Thor, Clint and Vis left to the fight. "Natasha, Capsicle and Rapunzel you take that road." Steve and Bucky groaned at the nicknames but nodded and headed to their assigned places. "and Bird Wings, Rhodey Bear." Tony signal them where to go.

"Wanda, Loki, you stay close behind and try smashing the cubes with your magic. Remember, they won’t do much without them." Strange intervened before Tony continued with the annoying nicknames.

"Well I guess that leaves Underoos and Gandalf with me." Tony said before he started blasting the Shakri with his weapons from the suit.

Thor left Clint on a rooftop where he was shooting at the aliens with his arrow bombs, which proved to be functional to destroying the cubes and the aliens with it. Vision was nearby Clint, flying around eliminating any aliens that were near leaving the perimeter. The Shakri tried to run but they were no match to the mind stone Vision had. Thor was throwing enormous amounts of lightings at every alien at view. He noticed that an inhumane quantity of electricity thrown directly at the cubes would make them to explode. Which also helped killing the aliens carrying the weapons.

Steve, Natasha and Bucky were in the middle of a street, killing any creature coming at them. Natasha had her new Black Widow bites that were effective on destroying the cubes. She also had a taser that was efficient at killing the pack of Shakris coming at them. Bucky knew he couldn't shoot the cubes because guns didn't do much. So instead he shot the aliens in the head, so they wouldn't come near. He would worry about dealing with the cubes later. Steve was being a little more reckless and was charging towards the aliens and face kicking them then would kill them with his new vibranium gadgets.

Sam and Rhodey were both flying around at the other end of the perimeter they had made and were shooting aliens by the groups. Rhodey was in his War Machine suit and was throwing bombs at them after he was entirely sure there were no civilians around anymore. Sam was flying, and redwing was helping shoot.

At some point in the fight Natasha had to go help Sam and Rhodey who were getting really outnumbered. Steve and Bucky were now fighting on their own. Steve smiled at mid fight. "Hey, Buck, this is just like the old times."

"If this is the old times then I guess I still have to watch out for that stupid kid from Brooklyn huh?" Bucky chuckled. "You always did such stupid things." He said as he shot three aliens on the head.

"Nah Buck, how could I? You would always take all the stupid with you." Steve retorted as they both fought in sync.

Bucky snorted. "Punk."

"Jerk."

They continued fighting, Bucky was a few feet away from Steve when he saw seven more Shakris walking towards them, so he told Steve to help him impulse himself in the air, so he could shoot them from above as that’s how he could have a better shot.
After they performed Bucky's idea and most of the Shakris around them were dead, Steve spoke.

"Wow Bucky, that thing you did was actually kind of smart, all the stupid must have grown out through your hair!" Steve joked. It was common for them to sass around while fighting.

Without a beat Bucky answered back. "You might not know this Steve, but there is this thing we say these days that might be really useful for you to know and it goes like this, go fuck yourself." He smiled as he heard Steve laugh at his commentary.

Their moment was interrupted by Natasha speaking through the coms. "You know we can all hear you right?"

"You guys are supposed to be national heroes what even." Tony sighed.
______

Wanda and Loki were making a great team. With both their magic combined, the Shakri didn't stand a chance. Loki would cast multiple illusions of himself to round them up and Wanda would hit them with a blast of her magic and immediately killing them, eliminating the cubes completely.

Peter was webbing a whole group of Shakris at a time. He would web them up together and Strange would create a portal directly to where Tony was shooting down aliens, so Tony would bomb them through the portal. They were an iconic team if you asked Peter. Strange was also attacking the creatures with his bolts of magic and his conjured weapons, his cloak would help him avoid aliens attacking him. If any alien was coming at him when he didn't see them due to the fact he was busy fighting others at the same time, the cloak would pull him away to avoid getting hit.

As Strange caught a glimpse of what Wanda and Loki's strategy was, he got an idea. "Stark, will you and the kid be fine if I leave you two fighting on your own? I need to speak to Wanda and Loki." Strange asked while fighting more aliens.

"Yeah, Gandalf, we will be fine. Go with your magic friends." Tony replied in his usual Stark-tone.

Stephen appeared next to Wanda and Loki while they were fighting. He started fighting alongside them while talking to them. "How far can you make your illusions appear Loki?"

"I can make illusions appear while I am on another planet, why?" Loki yelled so he could be heard from all the noise of the battle.

"Good, I need you to create as many illusions as you can, so we can circle the perimeter with them, I will explain in a moment. Once that’s done I can maybe open a giant mirror dimension portal so they I can throw them all inside again."

"I don't get bossed around wizard, so don't expect help from me next time, but of course I can do that, give me two minutes and I'll have enough illusions of me ready." Loki said. Disappearing from view.

"Wanda, to make a portal that big I will need help, and the other sorcerers are busy handling the alien outburst that happened at Kamar Taj too. I think with your magic we can create the portal with no problem. Will you help?"

"Yes, what do you need me to do?" Wanda replied, as she crushed an alien’s head with her magic.

_______

Two minutes later Loki appeared next to Stephen and Wanda. “It’s all done, say the word and the illusions will appear. What do you want me to do with them?” Loki asked.

“The plan is that you will make your illusions round up the aliens to one spot, making sure they don’t escape from there as Wanda and I make a portal to the mirror dimension.” Strange explained. Loki nodded and waited for further instructions. “Now.” said Strange.

Loki nodded again and immediately dozens of dozens of Loki illusions started to appear at the borders of the fight. The aliens were trying to fight them but were slowly going to the centre as the illusions were walking towards them. Rhodey and Sam were flying around making sure no alien was in hiding, and if they were they would demolish them. Vision and Thor were helping Clint go after a group of Shakris that had gone outside the battle perimeter.

Once the aliens were rounded up in the middle of a street, Stephen and Wanda started their part. Stephen had his sling ring on and started to conjure a giant portal, Wanda was sharing a bit of her magic to help.

While Stephen and Wanda were doing that, Steve and Bucky had chased seven Shakris that had gone far from the portal point, so they were going to go kill them. When Bucky and Steve were running at them one of the aliens took out the cube and pointed it at Bucky. Steve saw this first and immediately tried to shield Bucky, but he was unable to do so. Apparently, the alien had altered the frequency of the cube to knock out Bucky, and he wasn’t able to move out of the impact point. Steve saw as the the cube blast hit Bucky and he fell limp to the ground.

“BUCKY!!” Steve yelled, he was angry and in shock. He didn’t know if Bucky was just knocked out or went into cardiac arrest or was in paralysis. As those were the things the cube did.

Steve went into full kill mode and started charging towards the seven aliens, killing them one by one in the matter of seconds. He would use his new vibranium shield as a weapon to attack the aliens at their throat making them die instantly. As soon as he was done with them he ran up to Bucky. He checked for a pulse and saw he had one, meaning Bucky was fine although he was knocked out.

“Bucky, has been hit by the cubes, he is fine they just knocked him out, he wasn’t that close to it when he was hit so he will be fine. I’m staying here with him. Everyone watch out for the cubes.” Steve said between breathes, he said it through the coms, so everyone would hear. He grabbed Bucky’s face checking for injuries and then carried him bridal style inside a building, so he would be safe.

The portal took a few minutes for it to reach its maximum size, once that was done Stephen told Wanda that it was her turn to shine. Wanda started flailing her arms around her making the red magic come out her hands and started throwing all the aliens inside the portal. Loki helped too, he made his illusions grab some aliens and threw them like potatoes inside the portal.

Once Wanda finished putting the aliens inside the portal Stephen closed it and Wanda fell to the ground. She had used too much energy and magic that she was exhausted. The only time she had used this much magic was when she was fighting Thanos and killing Vision.

Stephen was going to help her when Loki spoke. “I got her, go see how the rest is doing.” Stephen nodded and went to check on the rest.

Vision, Thor and Clint met up where Loki and Wanda were, Vision rushing to see his beloved. Thor went to his brother and congratulated him on doing a good job.

“You see brother, you fought in the good side, you did the right thing. You see? It leaves you a feeling of achievement and- “

“I did it for Peter because he asked.” Loki said trying to shrug it off.

“Sure you did, it still means that you did the good thing brother, I’m proud of you, you really have changed.” Thor smiled at his brother. Loki was lost for words. His brother had just said that? He smiled at him gratefully and Thor engulfed him in a hug. Loki let him.

_____

Sam and Rhodey met up with Steve who had an unconscious Bucky next to him. He had rested Bucky’s head on his lap and was looking at him with worry.

By the time Sam and Rhodey had arrived the press was already there, journalists and paparazzi were circling close to them trying to film the aftermath of the event.

“How is he doing?” Sam asked.

“He has no injuries and he didn’t went into cardiac arrest, which means he is just knocked out, so he should be fine.” Steve mumbled, looking at Bucky.

As he said it, Bucky started gaining consciousness. His eyes started opening and he was slowly moving his arms. “Stevie?” He mumbled, barely audible.

“Bucky?!” Steve gasped, smiling at his boyfriend. “You are okay, you are alright. Can you get up? How are you feeling-“

Bucky interrupted Steve and did what looked like a laugh, but he was too weak to do it properly. “‘m fine. Terrible headache, there is this sound that won’t stop... oh wait, no, that's just your voice.” Bucky, even though he had been knocked out, didn’t miss the opportunity for his snarky comments.

Steve laughed happily at the comment and stared at Bucky in the eyes. And as he always did, he closed the distance between them and gave him a peck on the lips. “You jerk.”

“Punk.”

Then they started hearing the cameras click and felt the flashes on their face. They had forgotten that the journalists were there. In a matter of seconds, they all started shouting questions and statements at Steve and Bucky.

Sam and Rhodey were quietly laughing when Steve groaned from annoyance and muttered a “oh for fucks sake.” When the journalists wouldn’t stop. And Bucky had answered him with a teasing. “Language!”

______

Stephen went to check on Tony and Peter as soon as Loki was taking care of Wanda. He felt bad for leaving the two fight on their own with so many aliens, but in his defence, he had to create that portal.

When he arrived, he saw Tony was no longer in his suit and had a couple of cuts and bruises, nothing too bad. He was talking to Peter, who was still in his Spiderman suit. His suit was dusty and had a couple of light scratches, but Peter told him that it was just on the suit and he was fine. Stephen was relieved to hear it, he could see that Tony was too.

“Tony, Spiderman.” He greeted, flying towards them with his cloak. “Thank you for helping me fight them. This would had been harder without your help. Especially you Spider-Kid.” He said half warmly. He was thankful for their help and was grateful that nothing had happened to Peter. Stephen knew he would fight without him asking too, but after spending time on the ship and fighting Thanos. Stephen knew he was just a kid and didn’t want him hurt. He never spent much time with Peter though, but knowing he was a kid was enough to want to keep him safe.

“No problem, Doctor Strange. It was really cool fighting alongside you and Tony again!” Peter beamed and spoke happily at the wizard.

“Hey kid, why don’t you leave here to somewhere secure, so the press, that I am seeing accumulating around doesn’t cause you any inconveniences. I will meet you up later and we will head to the compound.” Tony suggested, putting an arm around Peter.

“Yes Tony! I really do not want to meet with the press.” Peter agreed as he waved at Stephen and Tony. When he started webbing himself to the nearest building he stopped suddenly.

“Kid everything alright?” Tony asked worriedly.

“Just, my spidey senses. They warn me when danger is coming, but it’s probably just the aftermath of the fight. Don’t worry about it.” He tried to fake a smile, but then he remembered that wore a mask, so he didn’t have to.

“Alright kid call us if you need anything, I’ll meet you at your house.” Tony told him.

Peter started webbing himself to buildings, so he could escape the press. But the spidey sense didn’t go away.

“Karen tell me if something not human comes up on the suit’s radar.”

“Of course, Peter.” His AI said. A few seconds passed when she spoke again. “An unknown non-human has appeared on the suit’s radar Peter. It is nearby Mr Stark.”

Peter immediately tried to get a hold of Tony on the coms, but he noticed the coms were not working. He started to panic because an alien was nearby Tony and he didn’t have his suit on to warn him. Peter started going full speed towards Tony.

As he was getting closer he saw Tony and Stephen were still talking at the same spot he left them. He also saw one Shakri alien was coming closer at them with a cube. Neither of the adults had noticed it and Peter didn’t like where this was going.

Peter saw the alien was pointing the cube at them, and with that small distance between the cube and Tony, the chances of Tony and Stephen dying from a cardiac arrest due to the cube was extremely high. He couldn’t let either of them get hurt, especially Tony. “TONYY, STEPHEN! WATCH OUT!” He yelled as he was getting closer. As soon as he shouted he knew they had no way of defending themselves in so little time. So, he did the first thing that came into his mind. He had to save them. He lunged at the alien, putting himself in between the alien and the others taking the full blast of the cube.

Peter immediately collapsed.

“PETER!” Peter heard Tony yell as he fell unconscious.

Chapter Text

Tony saw Peter collapse on the ground and lost any ounce of sanity he had left. He ran towards his kid in full panic mode.

"Peter!" Tony yelled with tears forming in his eyes. He checked for a pulse which was uneven and almost non-existent. He began to see blurry, feeling like something was pressing his chest making it difficult for him to breathe. He had an unconscious Peter in his arms-- which were shaking uncontrollably. He didn't notice when Stephen killed the alien, nor when Stephen had approached him and crouched next to him, trying to talk to him.

Stephen had seen this before of course, the signs were obvious to a doctor like him: Stark was experiencing a panic attack. First things first, he needed to make Stark to calm down and to ease his breathing. "Stark... Stark... Tony... listen to me."

He kept repeating that a few more times until Stark finally listened to what Stephen was saying. "He- he can't die, he can't. I, I need to help him I need to-" Tony said with his voice cracking at each word.

"Listen, I need you to take a deep breath, then hold it then exhale for a couple of seconds. We need to calm you down. Your breathing is too uneven and fast you will pass out, you won't be able to help if you're like this." Stephen ordered quietly. He was trying to keep calm and think of a solution because he couldn't, he wouldn't let the kid die. But for that to happen he had to calm down Stark first.

About two minutes passed and Tony Was breathing normally again. He was still in shock and cradling Peter's body. Stephen was pacing around in circles worriedly, trying to come up with an idea.

"Stark." He said. Tony looked up at the wizard. "I think we can still save him."

"Wha-what?" Tony stammered, eyes filling with hope and determintion. "How?"

"If the cube is what caused this, we might be able to reverse it."

"Pass me the cube, and get Loki here, coms aren't working but I might use his help." Tony said as he got to the cube with his suit forming around him. He was saving his son and no one, nothing, could stop him. 

"Loki?" Stephen raised an eyebrow.

"I am a genius but this fuckery is alien and he might be able to help." Tony said. "Now find him." He growled. He had hope of getting Peter back and there was no time to be wasting.

_______

Loki was with Wanda, Vision, Thor and Clint. Wanda was very tired, almost about to pass out from exhaustion, performing excessive amounts of magic would do that to a person. The press hadn't caught up to them yet because they were deep inside the fighting area and the press had most likely only found Steve to interview.

Loki was talking to Clint and Thor when Doctor Strange appeared through a portal looking like he was in distressed. Loki thought this was odd, now that the battle was over what could have happened. "Wizard, what is wrong?"

"It's Peter."

Loki's heart missed a beat. Peter? But he had checked on him no more than five minutes ago and he had been fine. Thor looked at him worriedly, oh no, his emotions had probably showed on his face. Shit. At this point he didn't care. "Is he alright? Is he-”

Loki was cut off by Strange. "Stark needs your help. I will explain to the rest but better get there before it's too late."

Loki nodded and passed through Stephen's portal. He saw Peter was lying unconscious on the ground and Tony was tinkering at a Shakri cube. He stopped there for a couple of seconds not knowing how to react. This was odd, he always knew what to do and was never frozen because sentiment. Peter was really rubbing off on him.

Tony noticed and without looking away from the cube he told him what was happening. "Peter got hit by the cube he is having a heart attack as we speak so I'm trying to reverse the effects of the cube. Now since this shit is alien get your ass here and help me. We don’t have much time." Loki nodded, and they got to work.

Stephen appeared thirty seconds later. "I have told the team what has happened and made sure Steve, Bucky, Sam and Rhodey keep the press entertained so they don't come nearby. How are you two doing with the cube?"

"Loki managed to open it and managed to find the control panels on it. Now I am trying to see what I need to move so I can reverse the cubes functions. Know anything that might help?" Tony replied.

"While I trained to become a sorcerer I did read a lot of random books on vast subjects, so I probbly can help." Stephen said while kneeling where Tony and Loki were sitting on the ground working on the cube.

Tony, Strange and Loki were working together and Strange was able to help. Once Loki knew he couldn't help much with the cube he excused himself to go to check on Peter. His heartbeat was barely detectable and spasmic, it wasnt beating correctly. It did not help that too much time passed between each heartbeat. He crouched next to him and tried to use his magic to keep him alive. He hadn't used his magic for healing something like this, but he had to, he didn't want to think what would happen if his friend died. Sure, Loki had experience in healing Thor every time he got bored and stabbed his brother, Frigga had gone tired of healing Thor every other day, so she taught Loki how to use his powers to heal. Loki never thought they would come in handy but here he was, using all the power he had to keep Peter alive.

"I bought you a few more minutes, he is still breathing, and his heartbeat isn't so faded anymore. I can't make him go back to normal so you two better find a way to save him." Loki stated, not looking away from Peter and concentrating on his magic.

Tony looked at him gracefully for a second before looking back at his tinkering of the cube. "Thank you, Loki."

Stephen was too immersed in reversing the effects, he didn't say anything.

______

"I think we did it.” Tony said unbelievably, four and a half minutes had passed since Loki started using his magic to help Peter and one minute had passed since Loki said he was becoming too weak to help him.

"Loki, bring Peter here please." Stephen ordered Loki.

Loki nodded and stood up carrying the kid. He was barely able to carry Peter as he used too much force to help him. He brought Peter to Tony and Stephen were the two were tinkering with the cube. Loki carefully placed Peter on the ground while he went to the other side of where the cube was standing, next to Tony and the wizard.

"In theory, this might reverse the effects of Peter and his heartbeat will go back to normal, making his heart problem disappear." Tony said, pressing a weird cable against a hologram thing inside the cube. He really needed to understand alien technology soon. In case something as shitty as this happened again.

As soon as Tony connected that cable a similar blast to the one before was blasted at Peter. Then the cube stopped working. The three men hurried to Peter and Tony grabbed Peter in his arms again and asked Karen to give him the vitals of Peter, as he was still in his suit, but without the mask.

"There is no heartbeat detected yet, Boss."  Karen stated.

Tony was on the verge of another another panic attack, he couldn't listen to what anyone was saying, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't even think right. He started hyperventilating and didn't hear when Stephen and Loki had just started arguing, Loki accusing Stephen of killing the kid.

What Tony did hear was when Karen started speaking again. He only heard her saying something but couldn't hear it very well. "What did you say Karen."

"Heartbeat detected, slowly stablising. Vitals are weak, and he has signs of small injuries, advisable to take him to a hospital Boss." Karen said in her robotic-like voice.

Tony looked down at his kid and saw Peter's breathing was becoming more visible and he was starting to wake up. "Kid?"

Peter opened his eyes slowly and was squinting slightly. "H’y, Dad." He mumbled barely audible. Peter saw Tony had watery eyes and looked like he had just gone through a shit time. "Wha-what happened?" He said weakly.

Tony's frown became more evident. "You don't remember spiderling?"

"No, I just-" Peter paused, closing his eyes and remembering what had happened. "Oh" it dawned him.

"Yes, oh." Tony said. Looking at his kid looking weak and hurt because he had been stupidly heroic and saved him. Why did everyone save him? First Strange giving the time stone in exchange for his life, and now Peter almost dying for him. He didn't see what was so special to give their lives for his.

"Did you take care of the alien Tony?" He said worriedly.

"Yes, kiddo, don't worry about it. Now how about we get you somewhere, so they can check up on you?" Tony started getting up while carrying the kid in his arms.

"S're thing." Peter was slowing his breathing a bit and had his eyes closed.

Tony panicked again. "Hey kid you alright?" He tried to hide his panic in his voice but mostly failed.

"I don't feel s' good." The kid mumbled putting his head on Tony's chest as Tony was walking. "'m tir'd. I th'nk I will t'ke a nap." Peter slurred, falling asleep.

"Yeah, kid, you sleep. We'll take care of you."

Tony forgot Loki and Stephen were still there. Loki relaxed when he saw the kid was alive and thought he wouldn't interrupt on Tony checking on his kid because he didn't want Tony angry at him. Stephen was quietly looking at the scene around him.

"Hey, Dumbledore, can you open a portal to the med bay at the compound? Bruce should be there. This kid needs a doctor, now. The Quinn Jet is faster, but as you said, you are faster."

Stephen nodded, using his sling ring hand to move his hand in circular motion until a golden sparkle appeared, creating a portal. "I'll tell everyone else to meet you at the compound."

"Thank you Strange." Tony sincerely said, giving the sorcerer a small smile before going through the portal with the sleeping teen in his arms.

____

"BRUCE?!" Tony yells as he enters the med bay. Bruce is usually there when they go on a mission without him.

Bruce’s appeared through one of the doors. He had his glasses on and was surprised to see Tony there. "Tony?" Then he stopped for a second when he saw Tony was carrying Peter, who was unconscious.

"Bruce, help him, he got blasted with this alien thing and he went into some sort of alien induced cardiac arrest, we reversed the effects, so he is no longer dying, probably, it still took a toll on him and you need to make sure he is fine." Tony started quickly stammering and explaining Bruce. He wasn't the talking fast while stammering kind of guy, but Peter did change his usual self to a very worried guy.

"Of course, bring him over here." Bruce said showing Tony to an empty med bay room.

Tony laid Peter on the empty bed and watched as Bruce hooked him up to machines, so he could monitor his vitals and give him proper medication to help him. Now that Tony saw Peter was safe and Bruce had told him Peter was going to be just fine, he began to calm down and started to feel his injuries. He had suffered a couple of them at the battle, he was pretty sure he had a bruised rib or two and possibly a concussion and who knows what else. He hadn't told anyone back at the battle because he couldn't do much about it while fighting so he told everyone he was fine, and afterwards, the whole Peter thing had happened, and his injuries had to wait for later.

Tony tried to sit down in a chair that was near the bed Peter was in. But found his injuries to hurt more if he sat so he decided to stand up and leaned against the wall.

A few minutes later Stephen opened a portal and walked through. Arriving at the med bay where Tony and Peter were. “Tony.” He greeted. “I have told the team what happened and what is the situation, so they will be arriving in a few minutes in the Quinn Jet. I couldn’t portal them through because the fight took a toll on me and my magic needs to rest.”

“Thank you, Strange.” Tony muttered trying to sound grateful. He really was, but his pain was increasing, and it was difficult for him to hide it and be nice at the same time.

“No nicknames? That's a change.” Stephen tried to joke slightly to lighten up the mood. “How’s the kid?”

“Peter is going to be fine. He is very weak right now and needs some rest. Bruce has already given him all the needed medical attention.” Tony replied.

“And, how are you? Having a bruised rib must be painful.” Strange asked.

“No, it’s fine- wait, how did you-” Tony’s eyes widened for a second.

“I'm a doctor, remember? and since I arrived, the way you are standing and low-key resting your hand on your ribs to decrease the pain. It was obvious.”

“I’m fine, I’ll get myself checked later. I need to stay with the kid. I can’t leave him.” Tony said, voice cracking at the last words.

“I understand” Stephen nodded sympathetically. He knew Tony must also feel guilty with what happened to the kid. He knew better than to argue with him. “You want some coffee?”

“Huh?” Tony said, not having heard Stephen.

“Coffee? I’m going to get some.”

“Uh, yeah. Thank you.”

Stephen walked out of the room and left Tony watching over the unconscious Peter.

____
A minute later Pepper walked in into the med bay looking worried and a bit angry. “Tony! Oh my god are you alright? They told me you were here, and I thought you were injured-” Pepper said, but she stopped as she saw Peter on the bed. “What happened?”

“I’m fine, the kid saved me and Stephen. He took the blast, and now he is here because of me.” Tony croaked. Looking at Peter while he talked.

“Oh, Tony, it’s not your fault.” Pepper said. She went to hug him to comfort him, but as soon as she hugged him, Tony winced slightly in pain. Pepper noticed. “Are you hurt?” She said in a worried tone.

“I’m fine.”

“Tony.” She said harshly. “You told me you were fine when I asked if you were hurt, and now I see you are hurt. Do not lie to me.”

“Look, it’s just a bruised rib and probably a concussion, a slight cut in my ankle.. I’m fine. I will get checked later. I need to be here with Peter.” Tony said getting slightly annoyed.

“Bruised ribs?! Cuts?! Tony! You are injured! You need to get healed. Now. Peter is fine, and you can go check on yourself while he is sleeping.” She said bossily.

“No. I’m staying with the kid.”

Pepper rolled her eyes annoyed. “I can’t believe you, Tony.” She looked at Tony’s ankle and saw he had an open wound. That part of the pants was now blood red. “Look, it will only take a few minutes.”

“No” Tony said ending the conversation.

“Fine, bleed to death.” She said sarcastically. She was worried for Tony. Pepper started walking out the door when she stopped. She took a deep breath and walked back. “I’m sorry Tony. Should not have said that. I am just worried, you are always injuring yourself.”

Tony was silent.

“Can we talk for a second?”

“I can’t leave the kid alone.” Tony muttered.

At that moment Stephen walked in with two coffees in his trembling hands and handed one to Tony. “Oh, hi, Miss Potts, If I would have known you were here I would have gotten a coffee. Do you want one?” He asked.

“No, thank you.” She smiled.

She then looked back at Tony. “Look, I need to talk to you, it will only be for a few moments.”

“I told you, can’t leave the kid alone. He is here because I wasn’t fast enough, and he saved me.” Tony answered. He was getting tired of repeating the same thing.

“I can watch him if you want, I will be here either way. I can tell you if anything changes.” Stephen offered.

Tony was quiet for a moment pondering the situation. “Thanks Stephen.”

Then Pepper and Tony left the room. Stephen sat down on the chair with his coffee and looked at the sleeping kid. Stephen understood what Tony was saying, he understood his guilt, as he was feeling the same. He kept thinking that the kid wouldn’t be there in that hospital bed if it wasn’t for him. He closed his eyes for a second listening to the bipping sounds of the heart monitor.

A couple of minutes later he started hearing angry screaming from the other room.

Chapter Text

Tony walked away from Peter's room, following Pepper. He didn't want to leave Peter, but he knew Pepper was going to keep pestering him if he didn't. He was somewhat relieved that Strange had stayed with Peter, so in case anything happens Strange could call Bruce for help.

Tony followed Pepper into an empty room a few rooms away from Peter's. Pepper didn't say a word until she closed the door and turned on the lights.

"Sit" she demanded.

Tony knew it was pointless to argue so he did as he was told. Pepper was searching through one of the drawers looking for a first aid kit. Since they were at one of the med bay rooms she found it quickly.

Pepper sat down next to Tony and started inspecting his ankle and cleaning up the wound. She finished cleaning it up and carefully bandaged it, then stayed quiet for some time.

"You need to take better care of yourself, Tony." She said softly, with a worried expression on her face.

"I'm sorry, Pep, I was going to check my injuries and all, I just had to make sure the kid was fine."

"I know, I meant you need to stop risking your life every time. It wasn't more than a few weeks ago that you disappeared into space! And now today you went to fight aliens again!" Pepper argued.

"Well, it's work, Pep, I can't just not do anything. I know every time I go out there I am risking my life and have a chance of not coming back. But, I do it anyway because that way I can help people." Tony tried to say calmly. He had explained this to her many times, and many times she would argue about it.

"That is the problem Tony, you are always risking your life, do you know how worried I am every time I see Iron Man fighting on the news? You need to stop risking your life this often!" Pepper said, becoming angrier.

"I need to help them, and you know it" he said sternly, looking at Pepper dead in the eyes.

Pepper sighed and passed her hands through her hair. "Well, what if you stopped being Iron Man."

" What did you just say?" Tony said, voice was cold but his eyes gave away how hurt he was by her words. 

"No, Tony listen-" Pepper began.

"No" Tony said, shushing her. "You know I am Iron Man, me and the suit are one, you can't just tell me to quit a part of me." He fumed.

"That is not what I meant! I am not saying that you kill off Iron Man, you can control it outside your suit. You can still be Iron Man and be safe!" She paused for a second. "I know your suit is made of nanotechnology, so technically you can't control that suit from the outside, but the other suits you have work well while you aren't in them."

"So, what? I should just stay outside the line of fire huh?" He snapped. "Just stay safe while people I care about are outside fighting? No, not happening."

Pepper started walking around in circles around the room, muttering under her breath. Then she spoke to Tony again. "This! This is exactly why we won't have kids! You are acting all self-destructive and keep sacrificing yourself, and you think you can raise a child?!" Pepper shouted angrily. And immediately regretted the last part. "I'm sorr-"

"Wow, is that what you think, that I would be a crap father?" He whispered almost to himself. He knew Pepper was angry, but this was a whole other level. "So, what? Did you lied when you said I was being a good father to Peter?" Pepper opened her mouth to speak but Tony didn't let her. "Well you are wrong, I think I'm doing okay with the kid."

"Tony, I'm sorry, I didn't mean the whole bad dad thing. You are great father figure for Peter. But having an infant is different and-" she paused, not finishing what she was saying. She took a deep breath with her eyes closed, as if she was thinking how to word her thoughts. "Look, Tony, I love you, very much, but," she paused trying to make the words come out. "If you can't stop sacrificing your wellbeing and continue being so self-destructive... maybe we should... take... a break." Her voice was soft, as if she was trying to ease the unwelcome news. “I don’t think I can keep up with this. I love you too much to see you hurt this much.”

Tony looked at her, not believing what he was hearing. "Are you seriously saying that now?" He hissed. "You know how I am, you have known me for more than two decades Pep, you know this is how I am! And you are telling me this now?! After we are engaged? This- this isn't a new concept for you to understand." The last part he said sounding hurt." He moved even further away from Pepper without looking at her. "I thought you accepted me as the piece of shit that I am." He started raising his voice. "And now you are telling me we should break up?!"

"No, I am saying if you keep sacrificing yourself and being so self-destructive. Maybe we need to take a break until you figure it out." She said sternly to hide away the tears that were threatening to spill.

Tony was silent for a couple of minutes, looking at the floor and picking on his hand, as he did when he was stressed. " MaybeIdontwantto "

"What?" Pepper asked.

"Maybe. I. Don't. Want. To." He said, still not looking at Pepper. "Maybe I don't want to figure it out." He whispered, he was trying to keep his voice stable but failed at it.

_______

Strange was sitting on a chair near Peter's bed when he started hearing angry yelling and he got worried.

At that moment he saw the avengers arriving, most of them had left to their rooms to leave their gear and change from their battle outfits. They were planning on visiting Peter soon after. Vision and Wanda were at the med bay; but for other reasons apart from Peter, they needed to help Wanda because she lost a lot of energy at the fight and needed rest. Steve and Bucky went straight to their room because Steve had said they needed to rest, after what had happened with Bucky.  But they had asked about Peter as soon as they arrived and asked to be told if any new news came up of Peter.

Loki was the first to arrive, he was still in his battle clothes and was looking worried. "How is Peter."

"He will be fine, Bruce has already given him medication and he just needs to rest now." Stephen told him.

"I will have to thank Bruce later then." Loki mumbled to himself.

Natasha, Clint, Thor, Sam, and Rhodey were at the med bay a minute later. Looking for Peter.

"Hey, Doctor Strange, how is the squirt?" Clint asked, looking at the sleeping Peter.

Stephen told them what he had told Loki. And then there was an awkward silence that followed, that was until Bruce appeared.

"Hey Tony, I am just checking up on Pete-" he looked from his paper sheet he was holding and saw Tony wasn't there but in fact Strange and some of the avengers were there instead. "You aren't Tony." He said flatly. "Where is he?"

"Shh" he silenced everyone and let them hear the screaming, that was faint enough that it could only be heard if they were quiet. "You hear that? That's Tony."

Bruce's eyebrows furrowed. "What is going on?"

"Pepper wanted to talk to him, after he refused to check on his injuries." Stephen told them.

The avengers grimaced at the information, if Pepper was angry they knew better than to stay away. Pepper scared them.

A few seconds later they saw a very angry? Hurt? Pepper walking outside the room, she didn't say a word to any of the present avengers and walked past them, her long heels could be heard as she left.

"That was weird." Thor said after a moment of shocked silence. "She didn't even say hi, she always does."

"Something really bad must have happened then." Rhodey thought aloud.

Bruce seemed to be pondering about what Thor said for a few seconds before he frowned his eyebrows worriedly. "Do you think Tony is alright?"

Rhodey seemed to get what Bruce meant, Pepper had been too weird, and that meant it was a hell of a fight. Rhodey knew whatever happened, his best friend was probably not taking it well. "I should probably go check."

"I'll come with you." Thor and Bruce both said at the same time, momentarily looking at each other while breaking into a small laugh.

Rhodey nodded, he knew Bruce and Thor were good friends to Tony, and hadn't betrayed him or anything, so he thought it would be nice that Tony saw others cared too.

Strange interrupted them as they were leaving to find Tony. "Is it alright if I accompany you? I want to check if he is alright." He asked, getting up from where he was.

They looked surprised but told him he could join them. Natasha, Clint and Sam said Tony would be better if they didn't go, as they were on friendly terms, but weren't exactly close friends of him. Loki informed he was going to stay with Peter.

Thor, Bruce, Rhodey and Stephen, walked up to the room where Pepper had left a few minutes ago and where Tony currently was. Rhodey entered first, and saw Tony was sitting down, he had his hands clasped together near his face, Rhodey could tell his friend was in distress. He walked inside and saw Tony hadn't noticed him on the room. "Tony?" He said softly.

Tony seemed to finally snap back from his thoughts and noticed Rhodey. "Rhodey? When did you arrive? I didn't hear you come in."

"I just arrived, we saw Pepper run off, so we went to check on you. What happened Tony?"

"Who is 'we'?" Tony looked confused, he looked around to see if there were any more people.

"Me, Thor, Bruce and Stephen. I told them to wait outside, wanted to see how you were first." Rhodey said. "Can I tell them to come in?"

Tony was confused as to why they were worried about him, he wasn't used to it. Especially from Stephen. He then nodded at Rhodey and his friend went outside for a second to tell the rest to come in. Tony used those few seconds to put on his 'everything is fine' face.

Rhodey, Thor, Bruce and Stephen walked in, they were looking at Tony worriedly.

"Tony? What happened? We saw Pepper run off, is everything alright?" Bruce spoke up, looking at Tony.

Tony took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He was not trusting himself to speak just yet, he looked better on the outside than he was on the inside, he was used to put on a ‘I'm fine’ facade, but on the inside, he wasn't fine at all, he was still processing that Pepper and him had actually broke up. He took another deep breath before he spoke. "Pepper and I had a fight..." he said, pausing a little before he spoke again.

"Yeah, we heard, what was that about?" Rhodey asked.

"She was angry I went as Iron Man again, according to her she doesn't like my ‘self-destructive tendencies’ and is ‘sick of me sacrificing myself,’ and she clearly stated what a shit father I would be." He grimaced at the thought. Thor patted him on the back sympathetically.

"Wow, Pepper must have been very angry, but you know she doesn't mean it right. Couples fight all the time and say things they don't mean. You will see how it will all be fine" Bruce said, trying to be helpful.

Tony flinched at that comment, he hadn't told them that they had broke up. "Thanks Bruce, but that is not going to happen."

Stephen, who had been awkwardly silent during the whole time, because he didn't know how to help, finally spoke. "How so?"

"We broke up." He shrugged, trying to sound as if it was no big deal.

The rest were silent for a second, not expecting it. Before anyone could say anything, Friday spoke up. "Loki told me to call you to Peter's room sir."

Tony stood up looking alarmed. "Is Peter okay?"

"Yes sir, he is starting to wake up and Loki thinks Peter will want to see you."

Tony clapped his hands together and pushed all his emotions down, he could worry about those later. Right now, he was going to worry about his kid. "Alright let’s go see Spiderling." He forced a fake smile and headed towards Peter's room.

Chapter Text

They all made their way to Peter's room. Loki was sitting where Stephen was sitting before, in a chair near Peter's bed. He was reading a book well being on the lookout for Peter, checking on him every few seconds. Natasha and Clint were sitting on a couple of chairs near the door, talking about Clint's kids.

Tony, Thor, Bruce and Stephen walked in the room, they all looked less cheerful than before. Rhodey had to leave to take on an important call.

Peter started to wake up and Tony was right by his side in an instant. He slowly opened his eyes taking a look at his surroundings, he clearly didn't remember where he was. It took him a few more seconds to remember all that had happened, he remembered jumping in to save Tony and Stephen, he remembered everything going black, then waking up feeling extremely weak, then letting his exhaustion win and falling asleep. He realised he was now in the med bay. He saw Tony next to him and smiled. "H'y Mr St'rk.” he said sleepily.

Tony smiled fondly at him. "Hey kiddo, how are you feeling?"

"Tired, and I feel like everything hurts." He could see Tony got tense at his answer. "Don't worry, everything hurts after each fight. It's like normal post-fighting hurting."

"You sure you are okay then?" Tony furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yes... well now that I think about it I am feeling a little fuzzy though."

"That may be because of all the medication Bruce gave you." He smiled at the boy.

As on cue, Bruce walked from the door, where he was standing, to go check on Peter. He dialled down the medicine doses a little.

Peter only just noticed everyone else on the room. He saw Loki was sitting on a chair, he had a book on his hand but wasn't reading it, instead he was looking at Peter. Stephen, Thor, Clint and Natasha were there too. "Hey guys. No one else got hurt, did they?"

"No, everyone else is fine. Bucky got blasted by one of the cubes, but he just needs to rest, Wanda used too much of her magic, and she is resting. The rest of us only have a couple of scratches or bruises." Natasha answered.

"Although you almost made my brother go mad, he was extremely worried about you." Thor said as Loki glared at him. "Even if he denies it."

Peter turned his head to face Loki and smiled. "Awe, The Great God of Mischief cares about me? It is more likely than it seems!" Peter joked, knowing Loki would be the only one who would get that joke there.

Loki scoffed trying to suppress a smile. Then rolled his eyes. "You wish."

Peter grinned at him widely.

Natasha and Clint greeted Peter and then went up to their rooms after they saw Peter was okay, they said their goodbyes and left to sleep.
Rhodey walked in after that, he saw Peter was awake and greeted him. "Hey, Peter, how are you feeling?"

"I'm good, Mr Rhodey."

"Nice to hear kid, we were worried about you." Rhodey said. Then he looked at Tony. "Now that the kid is fine, go fix yourself up."

Tony waved his hand in a dismissive form.

"Tony? Are you hurt?!" Peter asked.

"No kid, I'm fine."

"Really? Then what was the whole fight about earlier?" Rhodey pointed out sarcastically.

"Tony? What fight? What happened?" Peter asked confused. "If you are hurt you should go get healed."

Tony sighed, rubbing his eyes for a second. "I got a few minor injuries, and was checking up on you, and Pepper made it a big deal and we had a fight, we broke up. Nothing for you to worry about." He said, hiding his bleak expression and smiling warmly at the kid, ruffling his hair.

Peter instantly tensed up and looked guilty. "Oh no, Mr- Tony I am so sorry. If it wasn't for me, you would have never gotten into a fight. I'm sorry."

"No, no, no . Kid, this is not your fault." Tony said solemnly. Peter was looking at his hands now. "Pete, look at me." Tony raised his kid's chin up, so Peter could see him. "This was not your fault, and you will not feel guilty about it, we fought over other things, not involving you. This was not on you." Tony said softly. Peter nodded as Tony hugged him. "C’mon kid, you better get some more rest, this has been a very eventful day."

_________

It had been five days after the alien fight and Stephen could not stop the feeling of guilt he had been getting since Peter jumped in to save him and Tony.

He felt responsible for what had happened, if it wasn't for him, Tony wouldn't have gone to the fight, so Peter wouldn't have gone either and they would both be happy and good, Peter wouldn't have almost died. Tony wouldn't have gotten into that fight with his fiancé— ex-fiancé. He didn't want to cause this. He had stopped hating Tony after the whole Thanos incident. He had to admit, he hated Tony when they first met, he thought Tony was just some petty rich guy, but after knowing him and seeing him sacrifice himself for others, he stopped hating him. And he started to be fond of him after he watched fourteen million six hundred and five different futures. Tony was a very, very likeable guy. And Peter, that ray of sunshine of a kid, he never expected or wanted him to get hurt, he should have thought it through before asking for help.

If he was being honest with himself, he knew he would have never won without the avengers, but he couldn't deal with the guilt he was in.

He had to make it right.

He checked the time, saw it was barely passed three, meaning Peter would be just finishing school. So, he got his sling ring and portalled himself to the front of Peter's school. He was wearing normal clothes to not attract any attention to himself.

He looked around for Peter and saw him with two other people, he guessed they were the kid's friends. Stephen stood there until Peter saw him.

As soon as Peter saw Strange waiting outside the school, he quickly said goodbye to his friends and rushed to meet the sorcerer. "Hey, Doctor Strange, wha- what are you doing here? Did Tony send you? Is there a mission? If there is a mission I have my suit in my backpack and I can change qui-"

"No need for that Peter, there isn't any missions, nor did Tony sent me."

"Oh, alright. Not to sound mean, but why are you here, Doctor Strange?" He asked.

"I was around the neighbourhood and thought I might say hi, and maybe hang out for the afternoon. If that is fine with you of course." Strange explained.

"Oh yeah! That's great, I had plans with Tony and the rest at the compound but that can be rescheduled."

"Good." Stephen smiled. "You don't think Tony will mind right?"

Peter was quiet for a second, thinking if he should say something or not. "Nah, he won’t mind." He shrugged. "So where do you want to go?"

"I was thinking a nice restaurant or somewhere to eat. What do you think?"

"Food sounds great! I know a place nearby, they sell the best sandwiches in Queens." Peter smiled happily. "Let me just text May my plans and we can go." He got out his phone and sent a few texts before he put it back on his pocket.

_________

Stephen and Peter arrived at Delmar's.

Delmar greeted Peter as always. "Hey Mr Parker. The usual right?"

"Yeah, with pickles and can you squish it down real flat? Thanks." Peter said as usual. Then he turned to Strange. "What do you want to eat? I suggest combo number five, it's one of my favourites."

Stephen didn't know what to do since he wasn't used to this type of food places, so he nodded. "Sure."

"Another number five please Mr Delmar." Peter said.

Delmar turned around to glance at Stephen. He frowned. "Y esté quién es? No lo he visto por aquí." (And who is this? I haven't seen him around here) He said in Spanish, knowing Peter would understand but the other guy wouldn't.

"Solo es un amigo." (Just a friend). He shrugged and started getting his wallet out to pay. Delmar eyed Stephen suspiciously but said nothing else.

Stephen, who was previously confused to what they were saying, saw Peter taking out the wallet and stopped him. "No, no, I invited you kid, I'm paying." He said as he got money out of his pocket, paying Delmar.

Delmar took the money and gave them both their sandwiches. Stephen and Peter thanked him before they left the store and started walking.

Strange started unwrapping his sandwich. "So, what was he telling you back there?"

"He was just asking who you were. He hasn't seen you around and it's not usual for me to be around people who aren't May, Ned or Mj." He said, then took a bite out of his sandwich.

"Ned and Mj? They are your friends?"

"Yup."

"Do they know about your alter ego?"

"Yes, Ned discovered it a few months after the Berlin incident and Mj about a year ago. Ned actually helped me hack the Spiderman suit and he was my man in the chair once. It was epic." Peter said enthusiastically.

"Interesting... and when did that happen? Wouldn't you have Stark as your man in the chair, or better words, babysitter?"

"Well funny story, Tony took my suit away, and well I had to go stop my girlfriend's father, who was a super villain, called the vulture, steal from Tony's plane so I took my old suit, and he couldn't track that one because it was technically a onesie. And I had Ned help me out track him, which led to the vulture throwing a building on me and me fighting outside a flying airplane. So, he has earned the Man in the Chair title." Peter explained. "I may have no realised that you didn't want a full-on rant about it, sorry Doctor Strange."

"Please, call me Stephen." He said. "And, what do you mean you got a building on top of you?" He said, feeling slightly distressed.

Peter scratched his head nervously. He didn't like talking a lot about it. "Oh, well, you see, I tracked the vulture and he broke all the columns on there and the building crumbled on top of me. I was able to lift it and then had to go fight him. I don't like talking about it." He took another bite of his sandwich. "Now tell me, why are you here? Like I know you said you were around here or whatever, but like, why spend time with me?"

"Well, after the whole Thanos mishap happened and we almost died and then the alien attack happened, and you almost died. I realised we had literally spent through so much deadly stuff together and I didn't know much about you, and you seemed like a great kid. So, I thought I would hang around sometime." Strange explained awkwardly. He would usually lie but somehow this kid made him tell the truth. He got how he got Tony wrapped around his finger.

"Hmm, cool." Peter continued to eat his sandwich. "It has been nice spending time with you Dr- Stephen."

Stephen half smiled. "Glad to hear." He finished his sandwich and threw the wrappings in a trashcan near where they were walking. "If I may ask, what were you doing today when you said you had something to do with Tony? I felt bad you had to cancel plans."

"Oh, it was nothing, I was going to try to make him come out of his workshop today. But I can do that after this. He hasn't been taking the breakup well."

"Is it that bad?" He asked concerned.

"He tried not to show it much when I am around, but he is always at the workshop, he barely lets anyone in, and Friday says he hasn't been sleeping."

"That is not good. And will he accept visitors? As in, if I accompany you after this, will he try to banish me with his suit blasters?"

"I think it will be fine, maybe somehow you can get him out of his hermit hole."

______

The two of them had arrived at the compound. They took a shortcut and travelled there with one of Stephen's portals. They headed to the lab where Tony was.

On their way there they didn't meet any of the avengers, which Peter found odd but Strange was relieved. He wasn't a social person who liked to socialise with too many people at once without mentally preparing for it.

They got outside Tony's lab, rock music could be heard at full volume, Peter knocked on the door. He was used to entering without knocking but this last week he preferred not to. "Tony?"

The music stopped playing a second later. "Pete? You're here already? Shouldn't you be at school?"

"Uhh, Tony, it's five in the afternoon..."

"Oh is it? I must have lost track of time."

Peter saddened at that, his mentor was really not doing well. "Can we come in?" Peter mentally punched himself, why did he say 'we'.

There was silence. Then Tony spoke. "Who's we?"

"Uhh, well, Stephen and I."

"Stephen? Why is Gandalf here?" Tony said, still not opening the door.

"Well, he was outside of school and we went to get sandwiches." Peter said. "Can we come in then?" Peter asked. Stephen was silent during the whole time, not exactly knowing what to say.

"Uhh." Tony paused, and Peter could hear some muffled talking inside, he knew Tony was talking to Friday. "Sorry kid, I am really busy today." Tony said somewhat guilty and sad.

Stephen sighed and got his sling ring out. "Bullshit. We are coming in." And he opened a portal through the door and walked in, Peter followed close behind.

Chapter Text

"Hi— Oh Tony." Stephen’s eyes widened at the sight of Tony.

Tony was a mess, he had bags under the bags under his eyes, he looked really tired and pale, he had bloodshot eyes, from the lack of sleep, and his hair and clothes were completely dishevelled. He tried to act normal, or as normal as he could and put on a fake smile to not worry Peter. "Well look who intruded in my house, it's my favourite Hogwarts wizard." He said with a slight tone of sarcasm. "Hey Pete, how was school?"

Peter was looking at him with extreme sadness, he couldn't believe his mentor looked like that, he felt bad for him. "Tony, when was the last time you slept?" He said softly.

Tony could see the hurt in Peter's eyes, he didn't like Peter seeing him like this, he tried to seem fine when the kid was around, he even had FRIDAY announce when Peter was coming so he had time to look decent, but today he had lost track of time and, to be honest with himself he hadn't been coping great today. "Don't worry kid I slept about ten hours ago." He said, technically it wasn't a lie, he had gotten a full 45 minutes of sleep.

Peter didn't believe him one bit. "FRIDAY? When was the last time Tony slept?"

"Approximately eleven hours and 4 minutes ago sir." Friday responded.

Tony felt relieved he had fixed his AI to count more than 30 minutes as sleep. "You see kid, I wasn't lying."

"How long did he sleep?" Peter asked, not listening to Tony.

"46 minutes with 52 seconds sir." Friday said.

"When did he last get a proper sleep?"

"Friday override Peter's question." He demanded. "Okay, enough with the questions." He said, not looking at them in the eyes and instead starting to tinker with a suit piece.

"Friday, activate protocol 'Mr Stank'." Peter said, looking at Tony in the eye.

"Activating... Protocol activated, now I can answer to all questions asked by Peter Benjamin Parker regarding the health of Anthony Edward Stark." Friday said in her usual AI voice.

"What the fuck?" Tony asked.

"Rhodey and I hacked into Friday a couple of weeks ago, in case you were being stubborn, and we had to take certain measures for the future, turns out we would be needing it sooner than we thought." Peter explained. "Now Friday, when was the last time Tony slept a proper night sleep, more than 6 hours?"

"Three years and 7 months ago. Although his last three-hour sleep was four days ago."

"What?" He croaked, Peter's eyes were getting clouded, he was angry and sad and worried about his mentor, he couldn't believe how rough Tony's life was going. He looked at Tony, and before he knew it he was hugging him tightly because he did not know what else to do.

"Pete, it's okay I'm fine." He tried to reassure him, hugging him back and ruffling his hair.

Meanwhile Stephen, had been unable to be useful when he saw Tony in that state, and hearing his sleep problems. He felt bad for him, he knew how awful it felt, he could relate. He stayed quiet, letting Peter and Tony have their own father-son moment.

Peter didn't know what else to say to him, so he kept hugging him, hoping Tony would understand all the unsaid comforting things he wanted to say.

Tony knew that, and appreciated what Peter did, he loved that kid as his son and he felt guilty Peter had to see him like this, so he pulled on a smile for him. "Hey, Pete, don't be sad, what do you say you let me change my clothes and we can go out? And we take Gandalf with us, would that cheer you up?" He really didn’t want to go out, but he needed to, in order for Peter to stop worrying.

Peter nodded, he knew if he could keep Tony entertained, then his mentor wouldn't have time to feel as bad as he was feeling right now.

"Good, now both of you go upstairs and I will be there in a second."

He watched them go upstairs and he immediately put his head on his hands, trying to calm down and see how he was going to go through the next few hours, at least he had Peter. He smiled at that, Peter didn't know how much he had helped the man, Tony was glad to think of himself as some sort of father figure to his kid.

_______

Tony walked into the compound's living room, where he was expecting to see Peter and Strange. But instead he saw Peter was nowhere to be seen and Stephen was sitting on the couch doing nothing.

"Where is Peter?"

"Hey. Peter went home, I told him we would take care of you for the night and he could go rest, he was reluctant at first, but I managed to convince him." Stephen explained.

"Wha-? Who is we?" Tony was not liking this one bit.

"Well, apart from myself, Thor, Bruce, Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Loki, Sam, Rhodey and Clint." Stephen said.

Tony was not following.

"Look, downstairs I didn't know what to say, but I am not exactly fond of how you were back there, I wouldn't wish it to any of my friends, therefore I came up with an idea on how to help you, or at least try to, I told Peter and after a few times explaining it, he agreed. He had to go home because we are having a game night, with liquor involved so I doubt you would want him here." Stephen said, waiting for Tony to say something.

"I have so many questions, but mostly: why, and how."

"Why? Because you need to be cheered up and deserve to be in a good mood, the world's best defender shouldn't be having to deal with all the shit you are going through alone, I know the breakup was hard, and I'm not going to ask about the other stuff I heard, do not worry. That is your business and I will not intrude, but I can try to help. So, I called the others and told them that you were taking the breakup badly and suggested them the idea, they all instantly agreed to help their friend."

Tony stood there pondering everything Stephen just said, he thought it was an odd feeling, the feeling of people showing they cared for him, usually he could only count on Happy, Pepper, Rhodey and Peter, apparently the rest seemed to care, he thought it was odd. "Thank you, Gandalf." He said.

"No need to thank me." He half smiled. "Now I will get the drinks and they should start arriving soon."

_________

Four hours later, all the Avengers were drunk as hell, even Steve and Bucky, who, fortunately for them, had drank some of the Asgardian mead Loki had brought with him when he left Asgard. Tony was having an enjoyable time, he was drunk enough, and distracted enough that he wasn't thinking about any of his many problems. He was not going to lie, he liked having support for a change. 

They started their night to casually drink while talking to each other, but as the night progressed, and the bottles were being emptied, they had decided to play some games. They were all adults and probably shouldnt be as hyped up to play drinking games, but after the month they had, it was nice to act childish for a change. They had already played never have I ever, and every time someone had to put down a finger, they would have to drink, at the end they found out the supposedly innocent Captain America wasn't so innocent after all and found out Nat did odd things when she was doing missions as a spy, no one was surprised to know.

Then they had played Twenty Questions, in which every question they didn't want to answer they would take a drink, needless to say, Stephen was the drunkest of them all, not wanting to share as many questions of himself as possible. He wasn't a share-my-life guy. After many drinks, Tony found out Stephen was the cuddle-drunk type, and was closing in, on most of Tony's personal space as the time passed. Tony was oddly, one of the least drunk of them all, because of all the questions they asked, he had no problem answering them except for one or two. Sam was not losing this game but had a little too much to drink at the last game and was really drunk, and that is how the rest found out Sam was the talkative drunk. Clint had a few shots here and there, but since he hadn't gotten many nights out as a parent, the alcohol took over quickly and he was napping at one of the couches.

After it, they were playing Bed, Wed, Behead. Loki came up with the idea because he had heard the game before and found it funny. That is how Rhodey ended up having to decide if he would Bed, Wed, or Behead: Drax, Quill or Nebula. And how Bucky had to decide between: Clint, Steve and Sam. Amongst others. That game continued for a while until Stephen came up with a different idea, Truth or Dare. He knew it was a cliché game, but with drinks, the game was fun.

They decided to alternate the rules and had just established them, if they didn't want to answer a truth, they had to pay with a horrible dare, and if they refused they had to chug a pint of beer. And with that, the game started.

Tony started first, and he asked no other than Steve. The man was tired of answering the never have I ever questions, so he decided to start with a dare.

Tony pondered for a second before his smile transformed into a mischievous grin. "Okay, I dare you to recreate the whole spangled man with a plan song. With you spandex outfit on." He giggled at the thought.

Bucky snorted at the dare. But Steve shook his head. "No way I’m doing that, I am drunk but not that drunk."

"C’mon Stevie, you know how I loved that outfit." Bucky chuckled.

"You are drunk enough apparently, plus, I don't even have it." Steve said.

"Lucky for you, I found the suit extremely hilarious for me and embarrassing for you, so I got a vintage replica of it. Friday make mark 44 bring me the suit." Tony said, cackling at the thought.

The suit was brought, and Steve recreated the chorus before he stopped, he couldn't do it, but it was worth it seeing Bucky laughing that much.

Next, it was Steve's turn to ask a question, and he chose no other than Loki. "Truth or dare?"

"Well, a dare wouldn't be fair as I am the god of mischief and I would be unfazed by any dare... I choose truth."  Loki said.

"Most mundane thing you have done? The most human-like thing."

"I suppose it was when I created the theatre play while I was ruling Asgard."

"The what?" Half the avengers exclaimed, wanting to know more.

"As you know I pretended to be my father and, in my ruling, I made a play, it helped the people focused and in effect, made Asgard peaceful." Loki said, taking a chip from the table.

Thor laughed mockingly. "That is a good one brother, you pretending the theatrical plays was to keep our home in peace. while in truth I'm sure it was because you craved all the attention and wanted to make a play around about yourself and your life." Thor laughed, his way of speaking changed drastically when drunk and had almost to none verbal filter.

Loki looked offended for a second, he knew it was true, but his brother calling him out made him petty. "Okay my turn, Thor, worst short-term relationship you have had?"

Thor eyed his brother but sighed. "I guess it was that Asgardian fellow, he kept annoying me everywhere I went, and didn't get the memo that it was over. I had to call the guards to escort him out of the palace, it was quite troublesome."

Bruce interrupted Thor. "Wait, you're into dudes too? Huh, we didn't know that."

Thor laughed as he drank another beer. "Yes of course, why stick to only one, guys, gals, all worthy of my love." He said smiling like a puppy.

“Nice! Me too, except I only like guys, And I’m Ace.” Bruce shrugged.

“Good for you, Bruce!” Thor said, taking another drink.

"So, Thor you're bi then?"  Natasha said casually.

"Yeah I suppose.”

"Saaame." Tony said drunkenly as he high-fived Thor. Then he stopped looking at the wall horrified. "Did I just say 'same'?... Oh no... I think I might have spent too much time watching vines and Tumblr with my kid." He hid his face into his hands.

Stephen, who was next to him gave him an intrigued look, that no one paid attention to. Most of the avengers didn’t bat an eye, they weren’t surprised at that revelation.

Except Steve, who was surprised at the discovery. "Really?"

"Yes, he is showing me vines every few days, so I understand their weird humour." Tony said.

"No, not that, I have known you for almost a decade and I never knew you swing both ways." Steve said resting his hand on his chin.

"Well, didn't came up, no one asked so." He shrugged. "Rhodey knows for sure cause he knew me in my best playboy years. I even hooked him up with a few quarterbacks." He chuckled drunkenly. "Oh, those olden days am I right Rhodey bear?"

Bucky, who was extremely drunk at this point decided to talk. "So what i am getting is half of us are un-straight? Who would have thought. Ssstevie and me, Rhodey, Bruce, Tony, Thor. Anyone else?" He slurred loudly, playing with Steve's hair who was laying next to him resting his head on Bucky's stomach.

"I do not have a preference, for either romantic encounters nor for my gender." Loki took a sip from his drink. 

Sam shrugged. "I really don't care, if someone catches my eye, doesn't matter what they are."

"I had my couple of girlfriends when I was in the red room, that was until I had to kill them. So, don't think about it much, not much into dating now, so..." Natasha spoke quietly, she didn't like thinking about the red room. She tried to change the ambient by changing the conversation. "I know Clint is straight as his arrows and Maria Hill is a chaotic Lesbian. I don't have any insights on the rest."

"Wizard guy? Wh't about you? you are all too quiet..." Bucky slurred, falling asleep as he talked.

Steve was stiffling his smiles at how drunk his boyfriend was, he would have to beg Tony for the footage of Bucky later.

"Buck, I think you might be intruding a little too much into their personal lives, you are too drunk for you to ask those questions. I think it is time to stop drinking." Steve teased Bucky.

“So, shall we call this a night? Half of us are too drunk to function and two of us are sleeping already.”

Tony looked around the room, seeing Clint sleeping on the couch and Bucky sleeping next to Steve. “Yeah, let’s call this a night, the ones who live here can just go to their rooms and if they are asleep they can sleep on the couch.

“I will carry Buck back to our room.” Steve said, trying to pick him up without waking him.

“Okay, so then Clint sleeps on the couch and the rest on their rooms.” Tony turned to look at Stephen. “Hey, Gandalf, are you good to get back to Hogwarts or if you want you can have one of the guests rooms.”

“I’m good, thanks.” Stephen said, standing up and getting a little dizzy, he got his sling ring and made a portal to the sanctum. He was going to have a hangover tomorrow, but it was worth it. All in all, Tony had a good time and it was good seeing him smile again. 

Chapter Text

Peter had a long day at school and it just kept getting worse. He just wanted it to be over. First, he had to endure Flash's annoyance for the entire day, he had his least favourite classes and had received a lot of homework from said classes, it just wasn't his day. To make things worse, he had gotten in trouble and risked getting detention for two weeks, which was unfair as Flash should also be getting the detention, not him. Peter had gotten detention for skipping class, but in his defence, he had to go pick up his backpack from the schools trash, because Flash decided to mess with him. But, as he is the teacher's favourite, he exchanged the torture of having to tolerate the horrible Captain America Psa's every hour after school for two weeks, for making an extra assignment for the following week instead.

Peter got out of school, said goodbye to Ned and Mj, and went home to do his homework. Unfortunately, he had to cancel all his plans for the day, which included but not limited to: going to the compound, spending time with Tony, messing around the lab materials with Loki and make a streaming video chat with Shuri and Loki to watch random YouTube videos. He had to cancel all that, because of the loads of homework he had. So, he went home, got something to eat, and went to his room to start his work.

He was feeling bad with himself the last few days because he hadn't been with Tony that much after the lab incident when he saw how bad Tony was doing. He knew he was doing better after the night Stephen had planned with the avengers. Peter had heard that they all got drunk and played games, and Tony felt better after that night, better was not fully well though.

He reminded himself that Tony wasn't alone anymore in his lab due to the fact that the avengers had taken it upon themselves to be around him at all times and made sure he was sleeping and eating well, especially Stephen. Stephen... what an interesting fellow, Peter realised that the wizard was spending more time with Tony after the avengers drunk adventure. He was happy his da- his mentor finally found another close friend besides Rhodey. He hadn't been around much to see their friendship grow because of school. But he did have Loki, updating him on Tony's status and he had told him Tony was smiling more often. He'll take that win. 

Peter shook his head as to ignore his train of thoughts and focus on his homework, he had to finish his assignments of tomorrow and start on his extra work. Thankfully, the assignment he was given was really interesting and he was looking forward to it.

__________

The next morning Peter was woken up by May who was hurriedly telling him to get ready, as he had fallen asleep on his desk doing homework the day before. Peter silently cursed and got up to shower, he was getting anxious that his plans didn't work out, he was supposed to finish his homework and then get out for a couple of hours of patrol as spider man, but that clearly didn't happen. He will just have to maek up for it later. 

Peter finished his breakfast and ran outside to get to school, saying goodbye to May on his way out.

_______

He finished his school day and saw Happy was already there waiting for him in the usual black car. He said goodbye to his friends and got in. "Hey Happy, how are you?"

Happy, didn't answer his question but instead started making conversation with Peter, which was unusual for everyone. "How's Tony doing?"

"Huh?" Peter didn't know what to say, the breakup between Tony and Pepper was yet to be announced and no one was supposed to know, but then again, this was Happy and he would obviously know, Peter just didn't see the question coming.

"I have known Tony for more than twenty years, I know how the break up must have affected him, and he hasn't been answering my calls, just wanted to make sure he is alright." Happy explained.

"Well, he had his moments where he was not doing well but, we are all helping him, and he is doing better." Peter said, not making any effort on saying another word, he didn't know how much he was allowed to say.

"I see... thanks, kid." Happy said.

The rest of the drive went on quickly.

________

Peter arrived at the compound, where he started heading to his lab to work on his homework, as that is where he usually went, because he was able to concentrate better. He said a quick hello to most of the avengers and headed to his lab.

Loki was talking to Vision, Thor was sitting next to Bruce on a couch, talking to him and laughing, the rest were scattered around the room, except Tony who the avengers said he was at the lab.  

He decided he would go to greet Tony first. He walked to Tony's lab and knocked gently.

"Come in!" Tony yelled from inside the room.

Peter did as he was told and found that Tony was not alone. Stephen and T'Challa were there too. "Hello Tony, hello Mr. T'Challa sir, Stephen." He smiled waving at them. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi kid, Stephen was helping me and T'Challa discuss some things that needs to be discussed. He arrived earlier today." Tony didn't elaborate.

Before Peter could say anything, he heard a scream, he recognised that voice anywhere. "HEY PETER MAN!" It was Shuri.

"Shuri!!!" Peter said enthusiastically. "So nice to see you again! What brings you here?"

"My brother was coming here for boring political business stuff, so I came to help him develop my inventions and be in charge of the technological area of work, and to see you and Loki of course. Although I have to return to the meeting with these old men, but after this, I will go say hi to everyone." Shuri said.

"Well, have fun in this, and I will go do homework, you know I will be at the lab when you finish, Loki is usually there too if he is bored." He told Shuri, then he walked to T'Challa and the rest and excused himself from the room.

He went to his lab and started working on his homework.

Two hours later he had finished all his math, chemistry, and English homework and was currently working on his assignment, but during his research, he became a little too curious of the myths he was researching he had to ask Thor and Loki about them.

"Friday, are Thor and Loki busy at the moment?"

"Loki is currently on his room bouncing a ball on the wall and Thor is at the living room, sir"

"Ask them if they aren't so busy, if they can come for a moment."

"They both agreed and are coming here as I speak sir."

"Thank you, Fri." Peter thanked the AI.

"Hello, Peter, please tell me you have something for me to do, because this monotony of doing nothing is killing me I am seriously considering creating chaos in the city to deal with it." Loki appeared next to him after a few seconds. Always the drama queen.

Peter needed to ask Loki how he was able to teleport, he was dying to know how. But that was for another occasion.

"You'll see in a moment, Lokes. There is no need to terrorize cities" Peter replied.

Thor arrived a few minutes later. "Hello, Peter, what is the reason that you call for us?”

"Thanks for asking, well, you see... I have this extra assignment I have to do instead of detention, and the teacher assigned me to choose a mythology to write a paper on, and I chose Norse mythology. Because I thought it would be fun to learn what they myths said about you two... well when I was researching I found some amazing and... odd stories, and I need to know if there is anything true in them or if they are made up, because they seem surreal!" Peter rambled excitedly and nervous at the same time.

"Of course! I would be delighted to help, and I'm sure my brother thinks the same. Isn't that right, brother?" Thor said cheerfully.

"Yeah, this sounds better than the boring nothing I was doing before." Loki said shrugging. "So, Peter, what myth are you researching?"

"It's called 'Thor the Transvestite' it basically tells how Thor dressed as a bride to get his hammer back. And you, Loki, dressed as a maiden."

Loki snorted and smiled. "Yes, that indeed happened, I remember Thor asking me to pass as the bride, since I can shape-shift, but I thought it would be more entertaining to dress him up as Frigga."

"That was not fun, brother! The giants stole it and wanted to marry her, and she wouldn't participate on the plan, plus, fighting in a dress is hard, I will always be in awe with those who choose to wear dresses on the daily, that's why I always wanted to be a Valkyrie when I was a kid."

"It was hilarious to me," he shrugged, "on another note, Peter, what does the myth say specifically? I am curious to know if they got the details correct." Loki said, walking towards Peter, who was sitting on his desk with his computer.

Peter began reading.

"One morning, Thor awoke to find his hammer missing... Loki, who knew how to shift his shape, donned the feathers and flew off in search of the treasure. He quickly surmised that it had probably been stolen by the giants, so he rode the winds to their homeland, Jotunheim.

Upon his arrival, he changed back into his god-form and approached the chief of the giants, Thrym. Thrym answered that he had indeed taken it. And, he had no intention of returning it until Freya was made to be his bride..."

"Well they got that wrong, it wasn't Freya, but Frigga, our mother, she didn't want to participate. But the rest is pretty accurate. Continue reading please."

Peter nodded and continued reading.

"As they sat in counsel, Heimdall put forth the following solution: that Thor go to Jotunheim disguised as Freya, and thereby win back his hammer and take vengeance on its thieves."

"Actually, Heimdall didn't come up with the plan, I did, and told Heimdall, that was the only time he agreed with me and gave Thor the idea, it was hilarious." Loki said between laughs.

"Oh, it was your doing! Of course, why didn't I see that coming. But as hilarious as that was for you, it worked out, and I got to happily murder them all and return back to Asgard in time for the feast." Thor laughed, remembering the adventure. "It was one of my first missions. "

"This is so amazing." Peter said in disbelief. "Oh, I said that, aloud didn't I? Oh well, I get to have Norse mythology told by the actual gods who lived it! I'm so glad I got in trouble this is hilarious." Peter gushed and smiled.

"We are happy we could be of help and-"

"Thor you are needed on floor 7 with Boss and company." Friday interrupted.

"Oh yes, I'm on my way Friday." Thor told the AI. "What is that about?" He mumbled as he left hurriedly.

"That must be related to T'Challa being here. Anyway, thank you for helping me, Thor!" Peter shouted as Thor left.

"Do you have any other questions, or can I distract you from your homework to mess with Shuri's meeting?" Loki said, giving him a mischievous smile.

"Actually... I was researching and saw this... myth. And I was wondering if I could ask about it? It is mainly about you." Peter asked awkwardly and nervously.

"Why not." He shrugged.

"So, here it says a story about... sleepnir? Slipnair? I don't know how to pronounce it."

"Sleipnir." Loki corrected him. Oh, he knew where this was going. It did not happen but he was well aware of the myths he thought it was hilarious. He decided to play along, trick him into believing it or something. This would certainly make up for his boring day. 

"Yes, him, the eight-legged horse. It says here, that he became Odin's horse because he was very powerful and had eight legs. But... when I started reading the lineage… I have questions." Peter said, looking at Loki when he said this, making sure it wasn't too weird for him.

"I know where you are going with this but go on." Loki scratched his head.

"It says he is your child... the offspring of you and... "svaolf... svaolifari?"

"Svaoilfari" Loki added.

"Yes, that name... anyway, it says here it was a horse, Loki."

"Yes it was.”

"And you had a child with it?"

Loki nodded slowly.

"So, you fucked a horse..." Peter mumbled to himself. "Cool cool cool cool cool." He said quickly.

"Technically.... I was the horse." Loki said. Hiding his smile and acting all serious. 

"Wait? That part of the myth is true?!" Peter laughed, "Wow, I read it but thought it was surreal. Well, mythology just became quite interesting. Now that I know it's real."

"Yeah..." Loki laughed awkwardly, which Peter thought it was odd at first, but looking at the situation he understood he might have asked something too personal and tried to change subject.

"Anyway, thank you for helping me with my homework. I think I have done enough to treat myself with a break. Do you want to go find Shuri at her meeting?"

Loki's smile changed from faux awkward to mischievous in seconds and nodded. "This will be fun.”

________

After successfully kidnapping Shuri from the meeting, Shuri, Peter and Loki were causing mischief wherever they went, until they stopped at one of the labs, it was Bruce’s, and he was talking with Thor. And because they were a couple of bored kids, they were eavesdropping because Loki suggested in pranking his brother.

However, Loki didn’t have the chance to make his prank at that moment because Peter accidentally sneezed and alerted Bruce and Thor of their location.

“Who’s there?” Thor asked, stepping away from Bruce and going to the door.

Shuri, who knew how to bullshit her way out of trouble, entered the door followed by Peter and Loki. “Hey Bruce, hey Thor, we were just looking for a free lab to have fun with science, we can’t use Pete’s lab because it’s full of boring homework papers.”

Loki was impressed at Shuri’s lie, he could have done better but he was impressed.

“Oh, well you can join us if you want, we were working on Brucie’s new work.” Thor said cheerfully. Then he looked at Bruce. “Is it okay that I invited them? I just realised I should have asked you first.” Thor whispered to Bruce. Ever since he was back to Earth after everything, he was trying to have more tact with people. 

“No, of course it’s fine.” He whispered back, smiling. “Come in, I would love to hear your insights on this.”

Shuri was the most excited of the three, she was informed of the project and instantly was giving her opinions and talking in fluent science with Bruce and Thor. Loki was unable to keep up due to boredom, as he preferred the science of magic mostly. Peter also ranted with them for a while before having to excuse himself from there to finish his homework, Loki excused himself too, and said he was going to hang out in the living room watching TV. But, Shuri stayed there with Bruce and Thor for a while, she noticed the two were acting a little too domestic when not many people were around.

________

Loki walked over to the living room to find Steve and Bucky chatting on a couch. Great, he had to be social when he only wanted to watch TV. “Hello.”

Steve and Bucky turned around simultaneously, not having heard him before. “Oh, hello Loki.” Steve said.

“Where are the little mischief brats?” Bucky looked around suspiciously. “Is this another prank?”

Loki snorted. “I wish, but no, Shuri is with my brother and Bruce doing science stuff and Peter is in his lab doing the extra homework he got for detention.” He shrugged and walked to one of the empty couches, sat down, and started watching another special of John Mulaney. Ignoring the two super soldiers.

“Detention? Why would Peter get in detention?” Steve asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

He got no answer from Loki.

“Let's go visit him and see if he needs help.” Bucky suggested.
_______

The two super soldiers walked to Peter’s lab, they could hear his music play loudly from the outside. “That kid is a mini version of Stark.” Steve said.

“Like father like son.” Bucky answered.

They still thought that Peter was Tony’s biological son. No one had told them otherwise, the ones that knew the truth thought it was funny, or thought they were too deep in the joke that it was too late to tell them the truth.

Steve knocked, and Peter yelled at them to come in, the music was too loud Steve barely heard him. As the two walked inside the music was turned off and they found themselves in front of an empty desk, and an empty lab. Where was Peter? “Peter?”

“Up here.” he mumbled.

Bucky and Steve looked at the ceiling and found a very concentrated Peter stuck to it doing his homework.

“Peter what the hell.” Bucky said.

Peter finished writing something and climbed down from the ceiling. “I sometimes do my homework on the ceiling when I’m too bored, so I can keep myself concentrated.” He said, scratching his head. “What brings you two here?”

“Oh well-“

“Loki told us you had detention and we were curious.” Bucky said shrugging. “What's that about?”

“Oh... that. The thing is I skipped class, no big deal, but didn’t want detention so I exchanged it for an extra project.” Peter said, dismissing the part where Flash got him in trouble.

“Oh, that was all? I thought you got into a fight or something. So, it was just something stupid. You know you could have told Tony to talk to a teacher and you wouldn’t have to do extra work, I’m pretty sure he would somehow manage to do it if you asked.” Bucky told him.

Steve, on the other hand, did not like Peter had skipped class. So, him being captain America and all, started giving him his disappointment lecture. “Son, you can’t go skipping classes, you need to learn...- “

Peter stopped listening, he skipped detention for this exact reason, he has had enough with the Captain America PSA. So, he had trained his mind to tune it out automatically. He didn’t know how long he zoned out in his thoughts when he realised Steve was talking to him.

“Peter? Peter?” Steve waved a hand in front of Peter’s face.

“I’m sorry, what?” Peter snapped back into reality, he saw Steve was frowning at him and Bucky was smiling.

“Peter are you even listening to me?” Steve asked, putting his hands on his hips, looking disappointed.

“No, sorry.” He looked at Steve directly into his eyes. “I am completely immune at this point, for two years ago to be exact.” He looked unfazed and starting walking to his desk. “I need to continue this.”

Steve was beyond confused, he stood there for a moment registering what had happened. Bucky, on the other hand had no idea what was happening, so he chuckled, he was so lost but couldn’t help it, it was slightly funny to him.

“Peter? Please tell me what just happened”. Bucky said looking really amused.

Peter realised Bucky didn’t know anything about the videos. “Whenever someone gets detention we must watch a mandatory PSA from Captain America, it’s basically an hour of listening to a disappointed Steve sounding righteous. It’s annoying. And we have them for our gym class too. I apologise I zoned out, I do it automatically now.”

“What?!” Bucky snorted. “Please show me those videos, I’m pretty sure I can blackmail Stevie with it, and embarrass him.”

“Those things are still around? I thought after I became a criminal they took them out of the program.” Steve said.

“I thought they would do that but apparently they did not.” Peter said.

“Peter, the videos. Please.” Bucky half demanded half pleaded.

“I don’t have them but I’m pretty sure Tony can find them.” Peter suggested. “Hey, Fri, can you ask Tony to help me?”

“Tony isn’t on the building at the moment, sir.” Friday replied.

Peter thought it was odd, usually Tony would tell him if he had a meeting or was leaving the compound when Peter was there. “Where is he, Friday?”

“He left with Doctor Strange fifteen minutes ago, sir.” The AI said

“Wasn’t he in a meeting with T’Challa?” Bucky questioned.

“The meeting terminated twenty-five minutes ago and T’Challa is currently talking to Natasha and Sam on the third floor.” Friday said.

“Thanks, Fri.”

Peter stood there for a moment before asking Friday. “Hey Fri? Can you help me find Captain America’s PSA videos?”

“One moment... videos found, do I send them to your computer sir?”

“Yes please, thank you.” Peter said, walking to his computer followed by Steve and Bucky. He sat down and played the first video.

Bucky saw as the Steve on the video, with his old suit on, sat on a chair and looked at the camera.

“So... you got detention, you screwed up, knowing it was wrong but, the question is, how are you going to make things right?”

Bucky was looking very much amused at this point, he looked at Steve and the man had his head in his hands and was red as a tomato.

The video continued.

“Maybe you were trying to be cool. But take it from a guy who has been frozen for 65 years, the only way to really be cool, is to follow the rules-“

Bucky paused the video after that and looked at Steve. “WHAT?”

Peter jolted at the scream.

“YOU MR. I PICK FIGHTS IN EVERY BACK ALLEY AND HAS CHEATED ON HIS ENLISTMENT FORM FIVE TIMES? SAYING TO FOLLOW THE RULES?!” He was both lost in disbelief yet this was too funny for him.

The shouting must have alerted the rest, because in seconds, Shuri, T’Challa, Thor, Bruce and Loki were at Peter’s lab, and found a very red-from-laughing Bucky cackling on the ground shouting.

“HE HAS NEVER FOLLOWED A DAMN RULE IN HIS LIFE.”

Everyone looked at Peter for an explanation.

“Wakanda nonsense is this?” Shuri said, looking at Peter straight in the eye completely serious.

Peter looked at her dead in the eye before facepalming, that was not her best pun. “He saw the PSA videos from school.”

Understanding flooded their faces in realisation, everyone had seen them, including Loki when he stumbled upon them once at 2am. So, some of them laughed too, some of them just smiled at the sight of an embarrassed Steve and a laughing assassin on the ground.

“Fri, are you recording this?” Peter whispered, knowing the AI would still hear him.

“This room is automatically recorded whenever you have visitors.”

“Good, Tony will want to see this when he returns.”

Chapter Text

Gamora and Quill were busy piloting the Milano while Rocket was sleeping, Groot was playing his video game. Drax and Mantis were bickering, Drax insisted that now that he mastered the art of invisibility, (That one time where everyone ignored him was because Gamora was back) he was trying to master the art to pass through walls, he said he could do it if he concentrated hard enough. Mantis was telling him how that wasn't possible in her usual cheery voice but the rest were annoyed at this point. Meanwhile Nebula was somewhere on the ship listening to Quill's music and hiding from Drax's annoying bicker.

After they brought back Gamora from the soul dimension they decided to take a break from guarding the galaxy. They would still respond to big threats, of course, but the minor problems like finding certain objects were off their charts. For their vacation, they decided to visit several planets that seemed chaos-free. So far they had gone to Vanaheim, Norheim, and Morag.
They loved Morag as it was an oceanic planet. It was perfect for a small, yet well-deserved vacation., which is why they stayed for a couple more days.

Now they were heading to their next destination, Contraxia. Quill had chosen that planet because it was usually where he went with Yondu as a kid. It was an icy planet and it was the go-to location for the several Ravager Clans to relax. He wanted to show Gamora and the rest one of the planets he held dearly. From the outside, it didn't look like a vacation planet and was not very kid friendly but Quill insisted that they went there, since he spent much of his time as a kid discovering secret caves and nice views.

As they were heading there, they didn't realise a big wormhole was near them, and before they knew it they were being sucked into it. The sudden spiralling of the ship made everyone stop what they were doing and they tried to help Gamora and Quill pilot the ship before there was no way back.

But it was too late.

The Milano got sucked into the big yellow wormhole and everyone inside the ship lost consciousness.

______

Quill and Rocket were the first to wake up.

"Oh, man, my head!" Quill put his hand in his head to help with the pain. "Where are we?"

"No fucking clue but I say we check it out, and if it's too boring I say we leave here as soon as possible. Don't want to interact with idiots today." Rocket said, while he made sure Groot was okay and that his favourite weapons didn't get broken with the harsh landing.

Groot was up now and starting to check if his video game was broken, which it was. Nebula appeared from her room on the ship with a murder face. "What just happened?"

She didn't know anything since she was not paying attention to the ride. All she knew was that one moment she was listening to music, falling asleep and the next everything went to shit. 

"We fell through a wormhole, it messed up our ship apparently, but it is fixable. And we are checking if everyone is alright," Quill summarised.

Mantis and Drax were fine and unharmed and didn't have any injuries.

Quill and Rocket decided to go outside to get a look at their surroundings. As soon as they got out they were met by a large colourful city in the distance with many buildings and a giant tower with statues on it. They realised that they were outside the city and were surrounded by a lot of space trash that was falling from the many wormholes in the sky.

"This looks like an unsafe, weird looking environment... can we please stay and look around and possibly cause chaos?" Rocket asked hopefully.

"We haven't been here before, I guess we could investigate the place. Maybe we will find something nice." Quill suggested.

Then, a small ship appeared near them, showing a lot of angry guys, who appeared to be charging towards them.

"Great..." Rocket whispered sarcastically.

Quill and Rocket took their guns and started fighting. They thought they were winning until a bigger ship appeared. Rocket thought that if more of them were arriving they would have to get backup.

The bigger ship landed and without a warning started shooting at the men that were attacking Quill. Then, a woman came out of the ship, looking as if she had had a long day and had chugged way too many beers.

"Who are you?" She said, looking at Rocket weirdly.

"Hello ma'am, we are the Guardians of the Galaxy, our ship was sucked by one of these wormholes, but we mean no harm, we will fix our ship and we will be out of the way." Quill said.

"You seem like fighters, the Grandmaster will pay me so much for you," she said, looking at Rocket and Quill.

She got something out of her pocket, which seemed like a small circle weapon, but before she could throw it, she saw Gamora and Nebula leaving the ship and stopped.

"I know you," she said, looking at Gamora.

Quill turned around. "Who? Gamora?"

Gamora heard her name being called and looked around. She saw the woman and recognition filled her face. "Val? Is that you?" She walked over to them.

"That is my name. I still don’t know where I know you from, though." She said.

"It is you! Wow, it's been too long since we saw each other, you obviously don't fully remember me. I'm Gamora, we met on that planet with the yellow creepy things."

"Gamora! Yes, I remember you now. It has been too long," she said. "Do you know these people?"

"Yes, they are with me. This is my terra boyfriend, that is Rocket, and back there is my sister and a couple of others," Gamora told her.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Quill looked puzzled.

"Yes, we met way back." She paused and extended her hand to Quill. "Name's Valkyrie."

"Nice to meet you. Now that we know each other, you are not going to take us to that Greatmaster you told us about earlier, right?"

"I will not take you by force, but he needs to meet you all, since I returned here I got the job to report all living things that fell through the wormhole back to the Grandmaster, and then I get money for alcohol." Val turned to Gamora. "Will you convince them to follow me? Or should I make them?"

"We'll go, calm down. Let me bring the rest," Quill said annoyed.

"Where are we?"

"This is called Sakaar. Welcome."

_________

The guardians and Valkyrie were waiting for the Grandmaster to call for them. Valkyrie and Gamora started talking and were sharing what had happened since the last time they saw each other. Valkyrie was being generous enough and shared a few of her precious liquors with Gamora.

"After I last saw you, I ended up here. I fell through the wormhole and got a job as a scraper. Then a friend of mine showed up and I helped him destroy his home planet and his sister and, after that, Thanos killed most of them. I think no one survived, the last I saw of them was when my friend Loki was murdered and Thor had to watch his brother die, before I was able to escape with a few others, and then ended up here again," Valkyrie told Gamora as she drank a whole bottle of liquor in one go.

"You know Thor?" Gamora asked. She was feeling sorry when she mentioned the Thanos incidents, but the mention of Thor made her forget everything else she wanted to say.

"Yes, of course. He is Asgardian like me and he also ended up here a while back. How do you know him?"

"I know what incident you were talking about. After Thanos destroyed his ship, we got a distress call and when we went to check... It was horrible, bodies everywhere, and Thor fell on our windshield, very much alive..." Gamora told her all the story up to when she was killed, and told her that Thor was very much alive and on earth.
_______

"So, you know Thor, huh? He is not that good looking," Quill said, looking irritated and resentful.

"Jealous, is he?" Valkyrie said to Gamora, ignoring Quill's protests.

"Very." Gamora laughed.

"The Grandmaster is waiting for you," one of the servants said, interrupting the conversation.

The guardians and Val went to the other room to meet the so called Grandmaster.

"If it isn't my favourite scrapper. What have you brought for me today?" The Grandmaster asked, smiling and twiddling with his fingers.

"These are a few colleagues of mine. They landed here and want to repair their ship and continue their journey, apparently their job is guarding our galaxy."

"Oh, is that so, how interesting, interesting indeed," He said in amusement. "So, tell me, what exactly are you?" He said, walking over to Groot. "You peculiar little creature."

"I am Groot."

"Stay back from Groot you mo-"

"Rocket! Shut up," Gamora hissed. "My apologies, Grandmaster, he is a little overprotective of Groot. Please excuse his behaviour." Gamora didn't know who this Grandmaster was but she knew not to mess around with him unless they wanted trouble. She could win in a fight against him if she wanted to, but she was avoiding it for now. 

The Grandmaster nodded and signalled them to keep talking.

"This is Groot, he is a unique species and is the smallest in our little family. This is Rocket, he is a trash panda, so please excuse his behaviour."

"That is a peculiar creature, the furry one, with the tiny whiskers." He turned to a guard that was nearby. "Look, what an adorable creature."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING ADORABLE-" Rocket shrieked.

____

After the meeting with the Grandmaster, which surprisingly ended well, despite Rocket trying to shoot him, the Grandmaster took a liking to them and he allowed them to stay for a few days until they repaired their ship and then they had to leave unless they wanted to participate in his fight of champions. Ever since he lost the Hulk he hadn't found another champion and thought these guys could be champion worthy.

_______

"The ship is repaired, and we are almost finishing the last details and we will be on our way," Quill announced.

They had been there for four days, in which they all had been staying in the Grandmaster's tower - courtesy of Valkyrie. Mantis and Drax were very social towards the villagers and Drax convinced seven people that he could turn invisible if he stayed still. Mantis knew this was going to get over his head if more people believed him.

Nebula and Rocket became sort of friends while they were there, as they bonded over their love for the Grandmaster’s weapons. Rocket had even convinced the Grandmaster to give him a specific weapon he liked. Gamora and Val spent some of their time together with Quill and Groot, who was pretty sad that his video game was broken and had to socialise now.

"That’s great news! Where are you going to go next?" Valkyrie asked.

"Contraxia, that’s where we were heading before the wormhole happened." Quill looked around, making sure everyone was done putting their things back on the ship.

"Have fun."

"We will, hopefully." Gamora, who was passing by, chimed in.

"It was nice seeing you, have a fun trip Gamora," Valkyrie said. "And if you ever see Thor again, tell him I said hi and I am very much alive."

"I will- actually, you know what? We could just call him through the pod, you can tell him yourself," Quill said.

"Why not." She nodded and shrugged.

Quill went to the control area and started clicking buttons and typing something. Then he waited.

"Is everything alright??" Thor's voice sounded through the speakers.

"Hi, Thor. All is good. How are you doing?" Gamora said politely.

"Hello, Thor," Rocket mumbled as he passed by.

"Hello, sweet rabbit! Greetings, Gamora, nice to hear from you again! Is everything alright?" Thor asked. They noticed that there was a lot of background noise on Thor’s side.

"Yes, everything is alright. We just found something, or better said someone who wants to say hi.

"Look who lives, bitch," Valkyrie joined in the conversation.

"Is that... Valkyrie?" Thor sounded as if he was lost for words.

"Hello, your majesty, nice to see you aren't dead," She joked. She started calling him ‘your majesty’ as a joke at first but it stuck.

"Valkyrie! So great to see you! I thought you had died on the ship!" Thor exclaimed happily.

"I thought the same, but I escaped."

"Well, this is great news! Wonderful news! - Wait, how do you know the sweet rabbit and Gamora?"

"I take it you are talking about Rocket. And I knew Gamora from way back, and I found them here after their ship crashed."

"Where are you?" Thor asked.

"Sakaar."

"How?! Didn't the Grandmaster hate you for helping us escape through the Devil’s Anus and stealing his orgy ship and Loki?" Thor was confused.

Everyone who heard that was utterly confused but didn’t want to hear any answers to those questions.

"I came back, told some bullshit lie, gave him a good reason and told him I was a good scrapper and could be better at the job." Valkyrie said without care.

"That is great, Val! But if you ever want to leave there, you could always visit. Do you want to come here? You could get a room at the compound. I can pick you up with my Storm-breaker." Thor said happily.

"Your what?" Val seemed confused, as she didn't know any storm breaker.

"I have a new weapon, it's an axe instead of my hammer and it can summon the Bifrost," Thor said, then tried to shush someone near him, because, since Thor answered and started talking with the Guardians, there seemed to be a lot of secondary noise.

"Are you busy?" Valkyrie asked.

"Oh, no worries, Tony just arrived, and Peter is showing him a video of Steve and Bucky." Thor said.

"I have no clue who they are but good for them,” Valkyrie said. “And that new weapon you have, seems cool. But I think I will pass visiting, at least for now.”

“Oh, alright,” Thor said, sounding disappointed. “Sweet rabbit, how is my friend Tree doing?”

“He is fine. Being an ungrateful, sad teen because his game broke, again,” Rocket answered.

“Oh, that is unfortunate. You can always pass by and I’m sure Shuri or Tony could fix it in no time.”

“I am Groot.” Groot smiled, nodding his head.

“We would love to go visit sometime, but it will probably have to be in a few weeks. We are currently traveling for vacation purposes,” Gamora replied.

“Enjoy your vacation. We will be waiting for you in a few weeks then -” Thor said, but was interrupted by someone asking him something, which the guardians couldn’t hear. “Yes, Peter, I will be there in a moment. Sorry for that, now, where was I? Oh yeah, have a fun trip. I should be going now.”

“Bye, Thor,” Valkyrie said.

“I am Groot.”

“Yes, I will tell her about the game,” Thor responded.

After they all said their goodbyes, Thor hung up and the guardians finished packing their ship. The Grandmaster passed by to ask them again if anyone wanted to stay to be in his champion arena, which they all declined.

A few hours later the guardians had successfully left Sakaar and were heading to their destination and Valkyrie went to her usual routine of drinking and finding possible champion competitors for the Grandmaster.

Chapter Text

Tony and Stephen were returning to the compound after getting some coffee from Rome. Their meeting with T'Challa took a little longer than expected. As they didn't count with Peter and Loki interrupting the meeting to kidnap Shuri. Therefore, when the meeting was finally over Tony needed his daily dose of coffee. If not he would start hating on everyone so, Stephen gladly offered to take them both for coffee.

They left no more than thirty minutes, but that was long enough for them to find the total chaos on Peter's lab. Arriving through one of Stephen's portals, they were met by a super soldier laughing on the ground. Steve was glaring at him and was red like a tomato. Shuri and Loki were mumbling to each other while chuckling. Thor, Bruce and T'Challa were there as well, looking utterly confused. Thor however, seemed to enjoy what was happening. Tony saw Peter was away from the rest, and was definitely talking to Friday. He knew this was probably a sign of trouble.

As soon as Peter saw Tony had arrived he beamed widely and went to greet him and Stephen. "Tony! You are back! You just missed the best thing ever but don't worry, I just asked Friday to make sure it was all recorded. Oh, hi Stephen! How did the meeting go?" Peter rambled happily.

"Hello Peter, the meeting went great, thanks for asking." Stephen said.

Tony smiled at the sight of the happy kid. "Hey kid, you are all cheery today, care to explain why an ex assassin is laughing on the floor?"

"Well, I got detention, so I had to do a make-up work and Steve found out. So he was all Captain Righteousness America and since I am immune to it by this point I left. Anyway, Bucky asked what was happening and I told him about the PSA videos and showed them to him. Which made him shout at Steve and then ended up laughing on the floor. As I said, don't worry I recorded everything." Peter smiled.

Tony smiled back at Peter. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Where is that video? I'm sure Gandalf here would love to see that too."

Stephen heard the whole thing and to be honest with himself, he definitely wasn’t opposed to seeing that video.

________

Thor saw Tony and Stephen arrive and thought they would like to talk to Peter first so, he patiently waited before he went to greet them. He was next to Bruce. They both had been talking earlier until they heard noises from Peter's lab and decided to check what was happening. That's when they found T'Challa in the same situation as them.

Thor was about to say something when he got a call. He thought it odd, as barely anyone knew he had any means of communication now. An the ones who knew were in this room. Well, all except...

"I thought no one knew how to contact you but a few people." Bruce said a little puzzled.

"That's true, and apart from some of the avengers the only ones that know how to contact me are the guardians, they could be needing help... Should I answer this, or-"

"Go answer it, babe, the rest can wait." Bruce said smiling at Thor.

Thor put a hand on Bruce's shoulder and smiled. "I will be back in a second."

Thor and Bruce had gotten closer since that avengers drinking night. Technically their friendship had fomented at Sakaar. They had become close when Thor stayed with the Hulk. That night at the compound, led to them getting drunk, one thing led to another and by the end of the night they had spluttered their unsaid feelings to each other. After that night, they decided to start dating.

Thor stepped aside and walked to an empty room, leaving the chaos of Peter's lab. Taking the call with a simple

"Hello?"

__________

"You were right Pete." Tony smiled. "This is hilarious! Play it again Fri."

"Yes, Boss" Friday said.

"-HE HAS NEVER FOLLOWED A DAMN RULE IN HIS LIFE." The video of Bucky screaming at Steve was playing again.

"This is great and will certainly be useful on future occasions, absolutely not for blackmail, not at all." Tony said sarcastically, he was laughing so hard he had put his head on Stephen's shoulder to try and muffle them.

Peter noticed this interaction and realised that Tony probably trusted Stephen enough for him to let him in his space bubble. As the man didn't like people invading his personal space. So far, the only people Tony trusted to be around close enough was limited to Rhodey, Peter, Pepper and occasionally Happy. Well, maybe Pepper wasn't anymore. So, Peter thought this was a good sign Tony was getting better. He also noticed that Stephen did not move or made any indication that he found Tony covering his face with his chest annoying. That made Peter like Stephen more.

"I told you that you were going to love it!" Peter responded.

"Yes, you did."

At this point T’Challa, Steve and Bucky had already left from the room. Steve was half-heartedly glaring at Bucky until he agreed to stop laughing. They both went to their room and they could all still hear Bucky tease him about the video.

Tony noticed that apart from Loki and Shuri talking, Bruce was awkwardly standing near the door. "Hey Pete, where is Thor? Usually he is with Bruce, but he is standing there all awkward."

"I have no clue... I'm going to look for him, be right back." Peter said before approaching Bruce.

"Hey Bruce! Have you seen Thor?"

"Yes, he is in there but-" Bruce started.

"Thank you!!" Peter didn't wait for Bruce to answer and headed to where Bruce told him he could find Thor.

Peter entered the other room and saw Thor was there.

"Thor! Thor! We are all looking for you! I showed Tony the video and you need to come."

"Yes, Peter, I will be there in a moment." Thor said.

Peter realised Thor was talking on the phone. "Sorry" he mouthed and started to leave.

"Sorry for that, now, where was I? Oh yeah, have a fun trip. I should be going now." Thor said. "Yes, I will tell her about the game" and a few moments later he hanged up.

"Sorry about that Peter, I was in a call. What did you want to show me?" Thor said in his usual happy self.

"Tony saw the video! He loved it. And the. We were wondering where you went, because you randomly disappeared... is everything alright? Usually calls to any of the avengers end up being bad news."

"Actually it was good news." Thor smiled. "But I better tell all of you the good news, so I don't have to repeat myself."

The two went out of the room and Thor greeted Tony and Stephen before calling the rest of the people present on the room. Shuri and Loki walked toward him, and Bruce did too.

"So, what? Why did you call us to listen to you?" Loki asked.

"Well brother now that you ask, I just talked to Valkyrie, yes, she is alive and well on Sakaar. The guardians found her there. They ended up there after falling through one of the wormholes. And apparently the guardians might be coming here in a few weeks!" Thor said enthusiastically.

"Valkyrie? That's great news! I thought she had died when Thanos had attacked the ship." Bruce answered, feeling happy that she was alive.

"I'm sorry, but who is Valkyrie, what is a Sakaar and why haven't we heard of this?" Tony asked, looking at Thor to explain himself.

"I am just realising that I may have forgotten to tell you. You see, Sakaar is this place outside the known and the unknown because it has multiple wormholes on the sky that usually ends up throwing trash at the planet. Loki and I found the place shortly after Hela, my murderous sister, threw us off the Bifrost. Loki arrived weeks before me, time there is complicated. Anyway, that’s where I met Valkyrie after she sold me to the Grandmaster, but at the end she helped us escape and set Asgard on fire." Thor recalled the story. He did not notice the looks on confusion of the rest.

"Wait, did you just said that she sold you to who?" Peter asked shocked.

"The Grandmaster, he is the ruler of Sakaar. Val's job was to find contenders for his contest of champions so anyone who arrived got sent to a Grandmaster and was put in this weird chair." Thor explained. "That is how I lost my hair." He pouted.

"That sounds awful! So, does that mean Loki got a chair too?" Shuri asked looking at Loki. "Did you have to fight in the contest too?"

Loki chuckled fakely, he did not want to explain that. "The thing is I didn't get a chair. I gained The Grandmaster's favour and ended up ascending to a high position in the castle."

"How did you- you know what I don't want to know." Stephen said, shaking his head.

"Talking about the Grandmaster, Valkyrie said anything about him? Because I'm pretty sure he will kill me if he finds out where I am." Loki frowned.

"Not really, all she told me was that he pardoned her and met her get back to work. But if what you are asking is if- as I believe they like to call it here on Earth, your sugar daddy- asked about you then the answer is no." Thor said.

Stephen and Tony laughed discreetly at Thor's statement. Shuri, just looked at Loki and wiggled her eyebrows in a teasing way. Peter laughed at how Shuri was making fun of Loki.

"You little shit." Loki snorted. "And for the record, he wasn't my sugar daddy." He technically was, but also wasn't. They had come to an understanding but not in the way the others thought.

"Loki, please, you were literally in the highest position of power apart from him, knew all the codes of the palace ships and you literally had a different tailored outfit every day. How else would you explain that?" Bruce chimed in arching an eyebrow at him.

"I don't like where this is going, see you morons later. Shuri, Peter, you know where I will be." He snapped his fingers and disappeared again.

"Typical Loki, he always leaves whenever it’s inconvenient for him.” Thor murmured, turning around to go sit on one of the chairs in Peter’s lab. Where he started observing the kid’s projects.

Bruce excused himself and left. Shuri and Peter moved to the other side of the room. Peter appeared to be asking Shuri something. Stephen walked around the room looking around, for he had never been in Peter’s lab before.

Tony walked up to Thor. “Hey point break. How are you doing?”

“All is well, I’m already adjusting to the life on earth.” Thor responded giving him a reassuring smile.

“You have been here plenty of times before though.”

“Yes of course. But now that I am staying on earth permanently, it’s different than before.” Thor replied. Then tried to change the subject. “So, Tony, what is going on with you and the wizard guy?”

Tony didn’t let him finish the question when he responded. “How is it going with you and Bruce? Are you together yet or still pining after each other?” He commented, trying to hide a smug smile.

“Well- I- how do you-?”  He glared at Tony when he laughed.

“Relax, almost everyone knows. You two haven’t been so discreet after that game night, hell you were not discreet before that. You are a cute couple by the way.” Tony winked and started walking away towards Peter. Leaving a speechless Thor sitting there alone.

_________

As soon as Loki left, Peter took Shuri aside from they others. “I need to ask you something, but if Tony hears he will probably tell me to stop questioning it and let it go because he doesn’t like magic.”

Shuri looked at Peter in confusion. “Peter Man what the hell are you talking about? Tell me more.”

“Okay, you see how Loki is constantly disappearing whenever he wants, as if he is teleporting?” Peter started, scratching his neck as he did when he was nervous.

“Well yes, he is an actual god and trickster, so I’m used to it by now.” Shuri replied, not seeing where this conversation was heading.

“That’s the thing Shuri, he has many abilities and powers. Yet teleporting is not one of them.” He said, frowning.

“Maybe it’s just one of his tricks.”

“That’s what I thought at first, but sometimes he just appears from one place to another. Even with his tricks he would be able to get there that fast.” Peter explained, looking at Tony and Thor talk. Making sure they weren’t listening in on their conversation.

Shuri stood silently, processing what Peter had just told her. “Huh, I can see what you mean.” She finally spoke. “Okay, if he is finding a way to teleport we just need to know how. What would be something that could make him do that?”

“The only thing that comes to my mind is the space stone. But that is locked in Wakanda isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s stored in the vault... unless...” Shuri got out her bracelet and tapped on some beads, then a hologram appeared showing Nakia.

“Shuri, it’s 3 in the morning here. You remember there is a thing call time zones, right?” Nakia grunted, sounding sleepy.

“Yes, I’m sorry Nakia, but I need you to do me a favour. Without the guards knowing, please check the palace’s vault. See if the three infinity stones we have are still there.”

Nakia sounded more awake now. “Do you think someone stole them? We would know.”

“It’s just a hunch Nakia.” Shuri affirmed.

“Okay, give me a few minutes I will notify you when I enter the vault.” Nakia answered.

“Thank you Nakia, I owe you one.” Shuri said before touching a different bead and the hologram closed.

Peter was standing there looking surprised. “That bracelet is amazing! Who was that?”

“That is Nakia, my brother’s girlfriend. One of the few people I can trust with important tasks, like doing incognito missions or making fun of my brother with me and Okoye. We even have a group chat where we make fun of him. There was this one time he saw Nakia and froze. It was the best”

“That’s hilarious Shuri! But isn’t that like disrespectful as he is the king of Wakanda?”

Shuri shrugged. “Nah. I’m his sister, I’m entitled.”

“Fair enough” Peter laughed.

A few moments later Shuri received a message from Nakia. “Bad news Peter man, all three stones are in the vault. So, we still have no idea how Loki is teleporting.” Shuri sighed and put her bracelet away. “We should just ask him.”

“What? But-”

“He will probably tell us if we ask. Considering we are not his brother he should tell us. Worst thing he can do is not say anything.”

“I guess you are right...”

“I’m always right.” Shuri said smiling at him. “You should know that by now. I am going to get a few things. Then we can go to ask Loki. Plus, Tony is coming to talk to you. And apparently, so is Stephen. I'm going to remove myself from here for the interrogatory. They probably think we are planning something.” She said then left as soon as Tony and Stephen arrived.

“Hi- hey Tony! Hey Stephen.” Peter stuttered.

Stephen lifted an eyebrow, looking at him in distrust. “What are you planning Peter?”

“Nothing.” He said a little too quickly.

“Please tell us it’s not another prank, I need a break.” Tony grumbled looking tired.

“It’s not a prank, I promise. It’s nothing, we were just talking.”

“Fine, but if you end up pranking someone you will be grounded.” Tony commented. His phone then alerted him that he got a message, Tony took put his phone from his pocket and quickly read the message.

Message from BirdBrain : Hey Stark, I borrowed one of your Quinn Jets to get home. I promised Lila, Nathaniel and Coop that I would be returning soon. You will understand I hope, from father to father ;)

Tony texted back a quick reply telling him that he better return the jet. He sighed, putting away his phone.

“Is everything okay?” Stephen asked.

“Oh yeah, it was just Clint telling me he stole one of the Quinn Jets temporarily.” Tony summarised and gave them a smile. “Nothing to worry about.”

Shuri was leaving the room with her bag when she called for Peter, who was still talking to Stephen and Tony. “Peter! Are you coming or not?!”

Peter turned around to look at her. “Yes! I’ll be there in a minute!” He turned around to Tony and Stephen. “We are working on this thing and I should get going, but I will see you guys later.” He said enthusiastically as he got his stuff. “Bye Stephen! Bye Dad!” He said, not realising what he had just called Tony and left with Shuri.

________

Rhodey couldn’t find Tony anywhere. He had checked his lab, the living room, and Peter’s lab. He even called Tony’s room number he had for his penthouse on the compound and there was still no answer. He was getting worried because Tony was always answering his phone. Only time he didn't was when he was at t lab working. So when Rhodey still couldn’t find him, he decided to go ask around.

He knew Tony wasn’t with Peter because Peter was with Shuri working on something apparently. Rhodey was not going to interrupt their science stuff, especially if Loki was around. He still didn’t trust Loki and to be honest- he was a bit scared of him. Instead, he went to ask the rest of the avengers. Steve and Bucky didn’t know where he was. Wanda and Vision were currently not on the compound, and Sam was sleeping.

When Rhodey asked Natasha, she stopped what she was doing and decided to help. She reminded him that after the break up, lately there's at least one avenger was near him at all times. So, one of them had to be with Tony. Right?

Bruce and Thor were also not with him and also decided they would help them look.

“Are you sure he isn’t at his lab Rhodes? He is always at his lab.” Natasha said, crossing her arms.

“Yes, I’m sure I checked three times. When was the last time you saw him?” Rhodey asked.

“A while ago, in Peter’s lab. He was talking to Peter and Stephen.” Thor recalled.

“I don’t like that wizard guy. We don’t really know him much. Plus, he has been around Tony a lot. I’m sure he is plotting something .”

“I really doubt he is a bad fellow, he seems kind and helps Tony.” Thor added, trying to reassure Rhodey that Stephen wasn’t evil.

“I still don’t trust him.”

“Did you check his penthouse?” Bruce asked.

“I called to the room number he has installed there, and no one answered.” Rhodey said, getting annoyed.

“So, you did not check.” Natasha stated looking bored.

“Let’s go check it then.”

They all went up to the compound’s higher level, where Tony’s penthouse was situated. Rhodey entered the code to open the door and they walked in.

They found no other than Stephen Strange sitting calmly on one of the couches reading a book.

“Where is Tony?” Rhodey demanded walking towards the wizard.

“He is over there.” Stephen pointed over to where a big couch was across the room.

“There is no one there.” Natasha snapped.

Stephen turned the page he was reading, half ignoring them. “He is on the floor.”

They all peaked over to where the couches were and saw tony laying face down on the floor. Bruce and Thor thought Tony looked like he was having an existential crisis but Rhodey and Natasha immediately thought Stephen had done something to Tony. “I swear if you did something to him...” Rhodey began.

“Rhodes I don’t think he did anything-” Bruce began.

“No, let him finish.” Stephen said calmly.

“Just tell us why he is like that.” Natasha ordered.

Stephen closed his book, which he was half way done, and checked the time. “He has been like that for one hour and twenty-three minutes. He should be fine soon.”

“What did-”

“Peter called him Dad, he has been like that ever since.”

Bruce leaned over to Thor. “I told you he was having an existential crisis.” He whispered, and Thor laughed.

“Indeed.” Thor replied.

"Weird" Natasha muttered.

"I think it's adorable" Stephen mumbled.

“What was that?" Bruce questioned with a knowing smile. Which no one else seemed to have heard or saw.

"Hm? Nothing?" Stephen was completely serious, looking uninterested as he usually did around people. “Although I told him he was being a drama queen. Peter has called him dad before, but it apparently it just hit him now.” He said, changing the subject.

Rhodey was still being the defensive friend and was still sceptical of him. “How do you even know that.”

“Because Peter called him dad after he got hurt at the battle with the Shakris.” Stephen answered as if it was obvious.

There was a long silence that quickly became awkward.

“I’m going to leave and let Tony wallow in peace with his existential crisis, I don’t think he likes that fact that so many people are in his penthouse.” Bruce said, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Bruce is right, let’s go Rhodes.” Natasha said and started leaving with Rhodey.

“Bye, Tony! Have fun with your existential crisis.” Thor said before leaving with Bruce.

Stephen opened his book and started to read.

______

Peter and Shuri went up to Loki’s room where Loki was watching videos. The two knocked and walked in without waiting for Loki to tell them to enter.

“Hello, Lokes.”

“Hello Peter, hello Shuri. It took you twice as long to get here as I thought it would. Now you both give me a minute to finish watching this.” Loki said, watching the videos.

“Well Tony and Stephen were talking to me, so that took a while.”

“I see.” Loki stated.

“Also... Loki, the great God of mischief and lies-”

Loki paused the video and looked at Shuri and Peter. “What do you want?” He stated, looking at them unimpressed.

“We were wondering, we often see that you constantly disappear from rooms, or appear in them randomly. You know, when you do your dramatic entrances. And since you don’t have the ability to do that...” Peter babbled trying to ask Loki.

“So, you want me to tell you how I do that?” Loki smirked.

“Yes! We want to see how you do it! It’s just so cool to find out the science behind it!” Shuri gushed nodding enthusiastically.

"Took you long enough to ask” Loki raised an eyebrow at the two teens and pretended to think it over. “Hmm... I don’t know... you will have to keep it a secret from people, especially Thor.” He laughed. “He will kill me if he finds out.”

“We can keep a secret, Lokes, just tell us!”

Loki grinned at them. “Very well, if you want to know so badly.” he sighed. "I guess, I can tell you."

Peter and Shuri high-fived for their success and quickly turned their attention back to Loki.

Loki closed the door and began showing them his secret with his magic. The object appeared on his hand and he smiled mischievously at them. “Behold.”

Chapter Text

Shuri and Peter both gasped in unison. "No way!" Shuri said.

"That- that is not possible! How did you even get that?" Peter asked, he had his mouth open in surprise.

There he was, Loki holding no other than a small blue stone. The space stone.

"I stole it the moment I arrived to Wakanda. It was too good of a chance to pass. I thought, well, Thanos is already dead, so if I steal it again it won't matter anyway. No one is looking for them and I can have fun with it." Loki answered, watching the two kids' expressions.

"Thor will kill you if he finds out, you know that right?" Peter said cautiously.

Loki shrugged. "That's exactly why he will never find out."

Shuri was smiling. "So, that can make anyone travel anywhere in space, right?"

Loki nodded. "Yes, that’s why it's called a space stone for a reason." He commented.

Shuri grinned and her whole face lighted up. "Can we go to space? It would be amazing! We could find new planets and I could-"

"No, no, no, we are not going to space, Tony, Thor and your brother would end up trying to kill me or banish me from earth, and they would succeed."

"But space!" Shuri argued.

Loki shook his head and put away the time stone. "No, Shuri, I'm sure it would be fun, but I can't risk getting banned from this planet by Tony or Thor. I will never hear the end of it if something happened."

"C’mon Loki! We could go for a few days and then be back, make up an excuse to where we went. I'm sure Peter would love it too!"

Peter was unusually quiet during the whole discussion of travelling to space. "I'm not sure, Shuri, maybe Loki is right."

"Peter man! Are you serious? Don't you want to go to space? Again?" Shuri asked, looking at him with disbelief.

"Not really." Peter murmured timidly.

Even Loki was confused by this statement. He thought Peter would be on Shuri's side and beg him to go to space. "Why? I thought you liked space? You love talking about those space movies too?"

"Well considering I went to space a few months ago, almost got killed by a giant ugly grape, watched how Tony got stabbed and thought he would die, I'm not fond of going back." Peter said dryly.

Loki didn't know what to say. He understood better than anyone what being near Thanos could do to a person. No wonder why Peter apparently hated space now.

Shuri was quiet for a moment before she gave him an empathetic smile and gave him a friendly punch in his shoulder. "But look at it on the bright side! Thanos is gone, he is dead, turned to ash. We don't need to worry about anyone trying to kill us because we have Loki, and an infinity stone. We will be fine. Plus, we could go to space, have a fun time and now space will not be ruined for you."

Peter gave it a thought, then smiled back at her. "I guess you are right, and now that I think about it, space without the purple bitch could be fun."

"What did I tell you? I'm always right."

"Now wait a minute, I still said we are not going to space, Peter has classes, and an assignment to turn in. Shuri needs to help T'Challa and Tony with some important stuff in which I did not pay attention when you told me what it was about. We still have the issue of people will literally kill me if I take you both to space."

"PLEASE!" They both yelled. Giving him smiles and Peter doing the puppy eyes.

"We are NOT going to space! And that is the final answer!" Loki said sternly, putting play on the video he was watching.

__________

"We are going to space then." Loki said defeated.

Peter and Shuri had been begging him for the last few hours. They even came up with a plan. They would go on a Saturday, after Peter handed in his assignment, and Shuri had helped her brother, they would be going to space for a few hours then go back to Earth. They wouldn't tell anyone until later, probably in a few years.

Loki could not say no, he was getting rather annoyed and tired, so he agreed. He was going to regret this. 

It was Friday afternoon and Peter had just finished school, he had handed in his Norse mythology homework and gotten an A+. He headed home and arrived to a home cooked meal made by May. She had her afternoon off, so Peter cancelled his plans at the compound to spend some time with her. She was taking more shifts than usual because they were short on staff and her boss was an ass. So, he could hardly see her now, with her getting home late, and him patrolling, and spending time at the compound.

After a nice afternoon with May, Peter headed into his room and started packing a small backpack with supplies to take to space. He put on his two extra chargers for his phone, a camera he had, a sweater and the iron spider suit. He was only leaving for a few hours, but he wanted to be prepared.

Shuri, on the other hand, was also packing a small bag of supplies, but almost all of them were gadgets of her creation. She wanted to try and see if some of her inventions worked in space.

The next day, Shuri, Peter, and Loki scheduled to meet at eight in the morning, to leave early and avoid the chances of getting caught. Loki was in a black suit with a dark tie, waiting for them. Peter was in a science pun t-shirt but had his iron spider suit ready just in case, and Shuri had her normal clothes and some sunglasses.

"Are you ready?" Loki asked. He was against the idea at first because he wanted to be the responsible one for once, but now that he knew there was no way to avoid this, he was excited to show them out there, this was going to be fun.

"Yes!" Shuri said jumping in excitement.

"I am ready as I'll ever be." Peter said trying to give a happy smile, as he was both nervous and excited for the trip.

So, Loki materialised the space stone with his magic, and created a portal. The three of them walked into it, as the portal closed behind them.

________

It was eight in the morning, Tony was tinkering and upgrading his suit on his lab, while Stephen was reading something on a chair next to him and occasionally passed him tools.

Tony was pulling an all-nighter and he had accidentally called Stephen, he was trying to send a message and accidentally ended up pressing the wrong button. Which lead to a very grumpy and sleepy Stephen who had picked up, asking who was dying for him to have called at 4 in the morning. Tony had had to explain that it was an accident.

When Stephen heard Tony hadn’t slept yet he made a portal to Tony’s lab, claiming that now that Tony had woken him up, he would have to deal with him now.

So, Tony worked on new upgrades and Stephen read, they made a few small conversations, but overall it was them being in each other’s companies in total silence.

That was until eight in the morning when Friday made an announcement.

“Boss, it appears that the spider suit has left the permitted area allowed. “

Tony stopped working on his suit and looked away from it. “What did you just say?” Tony was alarmed, as he knew this protocol would only be activated if Peter left the state. There had to be a mistake, Peter was in his room. Wasn’t he? “Where is Peter Fri?

“The spider suit as well as Peter, seem to have left the area, sir.”

Stephen looked up from his book, concern on his face, and looked at Tony to see how he was doing.

“Where is he now?” Tony demanded.

“Tracking suit...” Friday took a few seconds to respond. “Unknown location sir.”

Stephen looked perplexed stood up. “I thought you could track the suit anywhere in the planet?”

“It does.” Tony said, he could barely breathe. “Friday track him again. Maybe there was a glitch.”

“Location not found.”

Tony could not breathe, he felt as if he was being suffocated, his chest felt tight and his hands started trembling. A panic attack. Peter was lost. And he couldn’t even track him to see if he was safe. Tony heard Stephen saying something, but he could not make up the words, it felt distant. Then he saw Stephen was next to him. He had to snap out of it, now was not the time for this, he needed to find his kid. 

Stephen went towards Tony and tried to talk him out of his panic attack. It wasn’t working. So, he took Tony hands with his to make him focus, once Tony had snapped out of his thoughts, Stephen was able to help him out.

“No need to worry Tony, I am a sorcerer after all, I can help you track him in a few minutes after I gather some things from the sanctum. We will find him in no time.”

Tony was still hyperventilating but had calmed down a little, well he was still full blown panicking but duty called, so he forced himself to snap out of it. “Thank you, Gandalf.”

“Of course.” He smiled.

“Anything I can help you with to track him?”

“I’m going to need a strand of Peter’s hair.”

___________

Peter, Shuri and Loki walked through the portal and into a planet. Peter thought it was amazing, not like Titan. This planet did also had some ruins and parts that were destroyed, like Titan, but here it was full of life, aliens from various species were walking around and some were reconstructing the destroyed areas. There were kids running around, and many structures that appeared to be buildings and stores.

“Damn! We are in space! Actual space!” Shuri said fascinated, getting her gadgets and started scanning a few things.

“Loki! This is amazing!” Peter said, “Where are we?”

“This is called Knowhere, it’s technically not a planet, but the severed head of a Celestial being. Thought you two might like it.” Loki replied, looking around the street.

“A what now?!” Shuri said in disbelief. “You are telling me we are on a giant head? Don’t people find it weird to live here?

Loki laughed, “Sort of, you see, this is home of the mining colony of Exitar, where The Collector's museum was, which was very famous amongst planets.”

“The Collector sounds like a cool dude.” Peter said.

“Or an evil villain who will kill everyone.” Shuri added.

“He was not a villain, his real name was Taneleer Tivan, he was the leader of the Tivan group, he was the greatest collector of the galaxy and basically owned this place.” Loki explained, motioning at them to walk along so they could see more of the planet.

“Can we meet him?” Shuri said.

“Well, you could try, but he is dead.” Loki said unamused. “Thanos happened, that’s why people are rebuilding things, Thanos destroyed half the planet here. Tivan had an infinity stone, so the grape did what he had to do to get it.”

“Yikes.” Shuri whispered.

“How do you even know so much about this place, or Taneleer?” Peter questioned. He pulled out his phone and started taking selfies.

“Uhm, I knew his brother.” Loki said.

“Cool! Can we meet his brother? I want to meet aliens!” Shuri said poking his arm as she asked.

“You know I am an alien, right?” Loki smiled. “And he most likely hates me right now because I fled his planet, so I doubt it”

Peter nodded and took another selfie. Shuri took one with him, then she stopped and eyed Loki. “Wait a minute, you fled his planet? Are you talking about your sugar daddy?” Shuri smirked.

“For fucks sake, he is not my sugar daddy, but yes, I was talking about the Grandmaster.”

“Well, we don’t want you dead again so let’s not go meet him.” Peter decided. “Loki take a selfie with us!” Peter said as he and Shuri went next to Loki and Peter took a selfie with Loki in the middle and Shuri making a funny face.

They stayed there for two hours, Peter took so many pictures his phone was almost storage full, Shuri tested some of her gadgets in space. Loki was having fun and enjoying the endless energy the two teens had.

Loki saw the time and knew they should be going soon, he had warned them that the space trip was only going to last 3 hours maximum. He had planned it, so he could gain back his energy for the next portal. Since he didn’t have any gauntlet to channel the energy of the stone, every portal he did would take energy from him, the longer distances the more energy he lost. So, it would take him a minimum of a few minutes before he could regain enough energy to make another portal. Plus, he had to focus to where he wanted to go, as he still hadn’t mastered the stone.

“Well, we have an hour left, so watch for the time.”

“Hey Lokes? Do you think it would be possible if we could visit another planet?” Peter asked shyly. He knew they were supposed to be going to only one place, but he was enjoying himself so much. “I am kind of enjoying this a lot, and it’s so different from having to fight Thanos, and I was hoping if we could visit another place, now that we are in space and all.”

Loki could not say no to Peter. “Of course.” He smiled warmly. “But it would have to be a quick visit, and then back home with no arguments okay?”

“Okay!” Shuri and Peter said at the same time.

“Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know, when I was little I wanted to visit Asgard, well I didn’t know it was called Asgard, but I wanted to visit Thor’s home, but that is not happening, and I know no other locations on space. You decide.” Peter answered.

“Indeed, we can’t go to Asgard as it is destroyed, but, we could go to Nidavellir, it’s a dying star, where Thor’s weapons were forged.” Loki suggested. When he saw the look on their faces he knew where his next destination would be. “Nidavellir it is then.”

______

“What do you mean you can’t track them? You were supposed to be a wizard!” Tony said exasperated.

Stephen had tried to open a portal to Peter’s location, but the spell had not worked for some reason.

“I swear if Loki did something-”

“Tony, we will find him and Shuri. We will.”

"Oh, I know we will. If its the last thing I do, I am bringing my kid back."

_______

They entered through the portal and Loki immediately knew something was off. It’s too cold, and this is definitely not Nidavellir. He looked around quickly and it took him a second to realise where he was. Fuck.

“Peter, Shuri, stay behind me and do as I say.” Loki said, doing his best to hide the fear from his voice.

“Loki?” Peter whispered as he shivered.

“Put on the suit.” Loki ordered “This is not Nidavellir.”

In a second Peter had his iron spider suit on. Next to Shuri, protecting her. Shuri had taken a few of her weapons and put her hand blasters on.

“Where are we?” Shuri asked, her voice was trembling because of the cold.

“Jotunheim, the home of the Frost Giants, of the Jotuns. I can hear them coming, they have been warned about us and they will be here any second. They don’t negotiate. Let me do the talking. I will make time to make a portal.” Loki said, his voice going cold. He did not care it would take almost all his energy, doing a portal so soon. The kids were his priority. 

And as of cue, the Frost Giants arrived. The taller one, presumably the leader, took a step forward towards Loki and the rest. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Loki turned on his go to smile. “Don’t you recognise your own? Oh dear, how daft have you all become.”

“Who are you.” The Frost Giant yelled.

Loki transformed himself to his Jotun form. “I am Loki Friggason, son of Laufey.”

“I remember you...” The Frost Giant said, “What are you doing trespassing our lands? Are you looking for war like you did with your brother last time? Are these your servants?” The Frost Giant pointed to Peter and Shuri.

“Yes they are, we were just passing by, after all, this should be rightfully mine. I thought I would show them. But don’t fret, we are not here to fight, we are just passing by.”

“Very well, you can stay, but they are not our own, they haven’t been granted passage through here, so we will take them to our prisons-“

Loki laughed. “You will do no such thing, as they haven’t caused any harm. And, if I remind you, last time we almost exterminated all of you smurfs, and we barely had a reason, so if you touch any of them I will make the last massacre look like child’s play.” Loki threatened, he was smiling coldly at them and glaring at the leader.

“Is that a threat Laufeyson?”

“Not at all, it’s just a warning.” Loki turned back to Peter and Shuri and whispered. “When I say go, you run.”

He turned around to the leader. “And for your information you absolute walnut, it’s Friggason.”

Loki conjured the space stone and created a portal. “Go!” He yelled.

Peter and Shuri ran through the portal, disappearing from the Frost Giants’ view. Loki threw ice at them and ran to the portal, being cut off by a Frost Giant, the portal closed with him on Jotunheim.

He just realised he did not think where he opened the portal, he was just thinking of getting out of there. He had no idea where he had sent them. Had he just lost the kids?

He messed up.

Then he snapped back to reality and felt the pain of the Giants attacking him. He knew it was too much energy, but he had to get out of there.

He concentrated and made a portal underneath him and he fell through it, falling into the hard floor of the compound’s living room.

________

Peter and Shuri walked to the portal and saw it close before Loki could go through. They looked around and knew this was definitely not earth. Peter and Shuri looked at each other worriedly.

They both heard a voice and turned around panicking

“Who are you peculiar creatures? And what the hell are you doing here?”

Chapter Text

Steve and Bucky were hanging out on the living room when they heard a loud thump sound behind them. They both turned around and saw Loki had fallen and was laying on the ground, bleeding from various parts of his body and barely conscious.

"Friday! Alert Thor to come here immediately, tell him it's an emergency." Steve shouted as Bucky ran to the now unconscious Loki.

"What the hell happened to him?" Steve whispered in fear. He knew that whatever had done this, it meant a threat to everyone.

Thor and Bruce ran to the living room. "What happened? Friday told me this was an emergency" Thor said, then he saw Bucky and Steve on the ground, they were holding someone. And that was- "Loki!" Thor shouted running to him.

"Thor, we need to get him to the hospital wing, I should be able to help him." Bruce said grabbing his boyfriend's shoulder to get his attention. "I mean, he is a god, so he will live either way." He thought, deciding not to say that aloud.

"What happened to my brother?!" He demanded.

"We have no clue, he literally showed up like this." Steve answered.

Thor grabbed his little brother bridal style and started taking him to the med bay.

"Please alert Tony of what just happened, I'm sure he would like to know so he can keep Peter nearby in case whatever attacked Loki decides to attack him." Bruce told them quickly before he went to join Thor.

______

Bucky ran into Tony's lab without knocking. "Tony?" He called out.

No answer.

"Friday where is Tony?"

"He is currently not in the building; would you like me to call him?" Friday asked.

"Yes please."

"Calling...."

"Hello? I swear this better be important-" Tony answered the phone, sounding worried and angry.

"Tony, it's me. You should come here as soon as possible, we might have a situation." Bucky started saying.

"I'm really busy at the moment, I'm sure whatever problems you have can wait." Tony snapped, he was too stressed trying to find Peter, he did not care for anything else.

"Alright, I'm just telling you, it would be wise to keep Peter nearby because something attacked Loki and he is unconscious, whatever it was, it can take down a god-" Bucky explained but was cut off by Tony.

"WHAT!" Tony gasped. "Stephen, tower, now." He said.

In a few seconds Bucky saw Tony and Stephen entered through Strange's portals.

"Is Loki with Peter?" Tony asked, his face was pale, and he look like a worried parent.

"No. He appeared on the living room, and he was barely conscious, but he was alone." Bucky replied, then he became worried. "Why are you asking if Peter was with him? Isn’t he in his room or with his aunt?"

"Peter and Shuri disappeared a few hours ago, we can't track them, and we were sure Loki had something to do with it, now I am not so sure." Stephen said as he started walking with Tony to the med bay.

Tony came in bargaining into the room, to see a barely awake Loki. Thor was by his side trying to talk to him, and Bruce was next to Thor.

"Where are they!" Tony growled and glared at Loki.

"What is this about? Don't you see my brother is hurt! If you are going to yell you can leave." Thor said, getting angry at Tony.

Tony ignored Thor. "Where are they? Were they hurt too?"

Loki, who was weak because of all the energy he used to open a portal and couldn't recover as quickly from his injuries, visibly paled, more than he already was, he hunched his shoulders and opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but nothing came out. Loki had just woken up and he remembered that he had no idea where Shuri or Peter were.

Tony did not like his reaction at all and thought the worst. "No-" Tony shook his head violently. "Don't you fucking tell me that they are dead. Don’t you dare.”

Thor and Bruce, who were very confused to what was happening, started to understand.

"They- they are not dead. I got them out in time." Loki whispered hoarsely.

Tony let out a breath he was holding, Stephen stood closer to Tony than before, in case he needed to help him if he had another panic attack.

"Loki, can you tell us what happened?" Thor asked nicely, looking at his brother.

Loki nodded slowly. "We ended on the wrong place, there were too many of them... I got them out on time. But I have no idea where I sent them. I couldn't focus." Loki said, his eyes wanted to shed tears, but he would not let that happen, not in front of them. He was the god of mischief for fucks sake, he should not cry.

"Where did you take them on the first place?" Bruce asked.

"Space, they wanted to go to space."

Tony had to stop himself from physically trying to kill Loki... Space! Of all places, they had just gone there, they almost got killed, and now Loki decided to take Pete back. Damn it! Tony still had daily nightmares of Thanos and Titan. He had nightmares in which Peter had died up there. And now he had to go back. He was going to find his kid if that was the last thing he did.

"I took them to Knowhere, but they wanted to go somewhere else..." His voice became louder. "I should get my energy back in a few hours and I will do my best to help track them. I swear on my life I will find them."

"You have done enough." He said coldly. 

_________

"Hypothetically, I couldn't track him because we thought he was still in earth. I have to do a different spell to track someone in spell, although, seeing we have a certain amount of time, it would be less accurate." Stephen said.

"What do you mean less accurate? Can you track him or not?" Tony frowned worriedly.

"I can, but the portal would open to a location near him." Stephen answered, closing the book he was holding. "Ready to go to space again?" Like the old times?" He said, trying to relieve Tony's stress.

Tony got his latest suit, made of nanotechnology, and nodded. "Like the old times? That was this year, Gandalf." He gave him a small smile.

Stephen got the hair he had of Peter and started creating the spell to open the portal.

They both walked in to a busy street, they were clearly not on earth anymore. Stephen walked towards a humanoid alien. "Excuse me, but where are we?"

"Are you stupid or something? This is Knowhere." The alien said annoyed, walking away.

"Fuck!" Tony mumbled. "This is the wrong place. Didn't Loki said this was the first place they visited? Meaning they are not here." Tony said, pacing in small circles next to Stephen.

"I see…we can still find them, the tracking spell takes time, meaning the more time I have, the more accurate it is. I could increase the chance of finding a more exact location, but we would have to wait a few hours." Stephen said grimly, knowing Tony wouldn't like it one bit.

"But, say, if we wait... what are the chances of getting an exact location?"

"About ninety percent chance of finding them." Stephen replied.

"Well, we might as well explore while we wait, let's see what Pete found so interesting about here, about space." He hated having to waste time while Peter was AMA but he knew he couldn’t do anything but wait, so he pretended it was fine and wanted to investigate the new place, while in reality he only wanted his kid in his arms, safe. 

_______

A few hours had passed, Loki had regained most of his energy and was talking with Bruce and Thor, trying to find a way to find Peter and Shuri, despite what Tony had said, he would do his best to find them.

Bruce didn't know much about alien technology or how Loki teleported, because Loki had restrained himself of telling them how he teleported. Therefore, Bruce could not help much even with his knowledge in science. He did create a few theories on where they could be, but the three hadn't gotten any closer in finding them. Thor was more preoccupied of yelling at Loki at the beginning, and that slowed things a little.

"Well maybe if you didn't take them to space! None of this would happen!" Thor roared, angry at his brother.

"They wanted to go to space, you moron, I had the chance to take them, so why wouldn't I. They loved it by the way, until Jotunheim that is." Loki said, getting annoyed with Thor.

"But brother, how did you even end up on Jotunheim of all places?"

"I don't know, we were going to Nidavellir, because Peter wanted to meet Asgard, since it was your home, so I figured I would take him to the closest thing there is to Asgard." Loki explained, sitting down on a chair and putting his head on his hands. He then got up. “I might have an idea of what happened.... I had thought of Jotunheim after he said something of Asgard and it got me thinking of my planet... and it might have affected the traveling...."

"So, you are saying, your way of teleporting can be affected by thoughts? Emotions?" Bruce chimed in, walking a little closer to Thor.

"Perhaps... I have no clue if I’m honest." Loki mumbled into his hands.

"So, maybe, since you wanted them to be safe, when you created the portal it took them somewhere where you think it's safe." Bruce theorised.

"So, we just need to know where Loki thinks of it as a safe place, and we can find them..." Thor pondered, looking conflicted. "But the question is, is there any place he thinks it is safe? He would not even trust the palace back home, only his room he would think of it as safe, and I doubt you sent the two there, as that place no longer exists."

"Thor is right, I distrust every place and every person, except Peter and Shuri. I have no idea where-" Loki stopped talking and got up from his chair. "Son of a bitch." He exclaimed. Changing into his Asgardian clothes and cape he walked out the door. Teleporting away from there.

______

It had been a few hours and Tony and Stephen had been walking around Knowhere, killing time while Stephen was perfecting his tracking spell. They were chatting to get to know each other, and Tony tried random food from the place.

"So, Dumbledore, tell me something I don't know about yourself. You are a mysterious guy. Tell me, backstory for when you got your Hogwarts letter? You were a Doctor before so, how did you end up a wizard?"

"It's sorcerer supreme, not wizard. And that is an awful lot of questions you want to know." Stephen stated, lowering his head, looking over at Tony. "I'll tell you, if you tell me something about you. But it has to be truthful, you can’t lie."

Tony snorted. "Sure, what is there to know, if you follow the news you know enough about “Tony Stark, the Iron Man.”" He said, mocking the last part sounding like the news reporters.

"I said I would ask you a question about you, not your suit, Tony." Stephen said seriously, unamused.

"Hey, I am Iron Man-"

"I mean the facade you put to the public, that is like your suit of armour, you ass." Stephen said, he said smiling, even though the smile didn't reach his eyes.

Tony didn't know what to say, he guessed Stephen was right, the Tony Stark of the news was a very different Tony than he was... "Fine, what's the question?"

"A few weeks ago, before the avengers drunken game night, Friday said something at your lab... when Peter asked about your sleep patterns..." Stephen paused, making sure Tony didn't look to uncomfortable about the conversation. "She said you hadn't slept, well hadn't properly slept in three years..."

"You want to know what that is about huh?" Tony asked, mostly to himself, but Stephen nodded. "Well, since Ultron attacked, you know about that right? How I fucked up yet again. Anyway, that wasn't the worst part, when we- when I found Loki's sceptre, Wanda was there, she wasn't on our side yet... well, she did something on my mind and-" Tony had to stop to get some air, trying to smoothen out his breathing. "And they were all dead, I was in space, I saw them, all dead, in front of me.... and the worst is that I didn't die with them." He mumbled the last part, but Stephen still heard. “But anyway that didn’t happen so yay me.” He said with a fake smile. 

Stephen was shocked, he didn’t really know what happened with the Ultron fiasco. "I’m sorry you had to live through that.” Stephen said softly, “and I’m sorry you had to relieve that because I asked, I didn't want you to relieve that."

"It's fine" Tony shrugged, putting on his usual fake smile.

"No, it's not." Stephen's eyes filled with a mixture of sadness and sympathy, he grabbed Tony's shoulders to make him face him. "What you went through, that must have been awful, watching people you love die must be worse than one dying multiple times. I would know about that.” He mumbled the last part and slightly chuckled. “and having to fight in space years later, that must- I get why you didn't want to come to space again."

Tony was not used to people being understanding and not under-appreciating him. He did notice that Stephen was nicer to him than a few from his team, he realised it when they started hanging out more on the last few weeks. But he still was not used to it. So, Stephen saying that, caught him off guard and he almost broke down into a meltdown. "They were all dead, and I couldn't protect them, and then Peter came along, and I thought I could protect him, and then he was off to space and I couldn't protect him there. He could have died." Tony stammered, looking miserable. He didn't know why he trusted Stephen with all this information about himself, but he did. "And I almost lost him once, I can't lose Pete again." He whispered, eyes tearing up at the thought of losing his kid.

Stephen took him into his arms and gave him a hug. "You are not going to lose him." He planted a small kiss at the other man’s hair. "You aren't... I promise." Even if he had to use the time stone to get the kid back, he would. 

Tony did not notice it because he started to feel stupid that he just broke down in front of someone, he was only used to having personal conversations or mental breakdowns in front of Pepper, or very rarely, Rhodey. But he found something about Strange comforting and trusting. "Sorry about that... and thank you" He said, the voice sounding mumbled as he was still wrapped in a hug.

Stephen let go of the hug. "No need to apologise.” He smiled fondly. “Apologising a lot gets boring, and I don’t want to find another friend to spend time with. So apologies need to stop.” He said with no harshness to it. 

Tony chuckled grimly then took a few seconds to recompose himself and went back to his usual self. "Well then, I answered your question, guess now you have to answer mine. What is it like being a sorcerer supreme? Any backstory?"

Stephen grimaced at the thought but hid his expression quickly. "Very well, I'll tell you." He smiled at him. "I-"

At that moment Stephen saw Loki appear, teleporting behind Tony. Stephen looked at him in question and Tony turned around, and once he saw Loki he was ready to yell at him again.

"What are you doing here! Found a way to help track him? So, you can try to fix it and end up screwing things up?" Tony snapped, he was still angry, no, he was furious at Loki for losing Pete.

"I know where they are."

Chapter Text

"Who are you peculiar creatures? And what the hell are you doing here?"

Peter and Shuri didn't know what to say. They had no idea where they were. They had appeared in some sort of palace, so Peter panicked at the thought of whoever that was, was going to think they were intruding the place.

Peter spoke first. "Hello, sir, my name is Peter Parker, I think we might have come here by accident, if you could show us the way out we will gladly leave." Peter tried to sound calm, but he was panicking and had no idea what to say.

"You guys are not going anywhere." The man said, he was next to what appeared to be an assistant. "Bring Scraper one forty-two here."

"But the intruders-" the assistant said.

"Now." The man said frowning at the assistant. Then turned again to face Peter and Shuri, putting on a charming smile. "I have never seen you around here... interesting, no one manages to get inside my palace without being noticed." The man smiled to himself and mumbled something incoherent. "Who are you and how did you managed to enter?"

"As I said, I'm Peter Parker, this is my friend Shuri, we arrived here on accident, we don't actually know where we are." Peter started, his hands started to sweat of how nervous he was.

"Wait, wait, wait, you little fellows are telling me you have no idea how you ended up in the most secure place of the planet? And you expect me to believe it? This is funny, quite, quite funny. I think I just found my volunteers for a public execution.... or by any chance are you fighters? You are small, but I could make a worthy fight out of it, yes that’s a good idea." The man started saying, mostly to himself.

"No, sir, we- we don't want to cause any trouble, we got teleported here by our friend Loki and-" Peter started stuttering, trying to do his best to not get killed.

The man stopped and walked closer to the two kids, eyeing them suspiciously. "What did you just say?"

Peter was too nervous to talk, so Shuri took over the conversation, a fake confidence surrounded her. "What he just said, we literally got teleported by our friend Loki, are you deaf?"

Peter almost had a mini heart attack listening to Shuri talk to someone who could potentially kill them, like that.

"Did you just say Loki? As in tall man, long greasy hair? Always wears capes?" The man said, intrigued.

"Yes! That’s our friend! Unless you hate him then no we don't know him." Peter stammered quickly.

"Oh, Loki! Finally, some news from him. I thought he would probably be dead by now."

"How do you know Loki?" Shuri asked, shifting her eyes suspiciously.

"Well, he used to live here with me a long time ago." The man said, no longer thinking of sending the two kids to the contest of champions, no, no, he could use them for leverage.

"Wait a second."  Shuri said, eyeing the man, connecting the dots. "You are the Grandmaster aren't you." Shuri smirked and looked at Peter.

Peter understood what Shuri meant and if she was right, they would be safe, but Peter was concerned that the Grandmaster would hate them for being Loki's friends.

"Yes, it is I, I am the Grandmaster, ruler of Sakaar."

Shuri started laughing and turned to Peter. "That's Loki's sugar daddy" she whispered, Peter stiffed a laugh, now was not the time. "Loki has told us a lot about you."

The Grandmaster grinned at Shuri. "Oh, has he really?" He smiled. "Well, that’s nice, that’s really good. Good, good indeed."

"Wait? Aren't you angry at Loki or something?" Peter shyly asked.

"No? Why would I be angry at my Loki?" The Grandmaster was confused, looking at the two kids as if they were aliens.

"Because he kind of betrayed you? He told us he took one of your ships and started a revolution or something... and said that youwouldpossiblykillhim." Peter said quickly, as each word passed he was more unsure if bringing this up was a good idea.

"Of course, I'm not mad! I knew it all along, it was fun to see Loki thinking he was tricking me. I knew he was going to help his brother ever since Sparkles fought my champion."

"I'm sorry, but who is Sparkles? And how did you know?!" Shuri asked enthusiastically, forgetting that they could possibly be in danger.

"Sparkles was a contender in my contest. And, I'm an elder, an immortal being who possesses many abilities, one of them is an extra-sensory ability of mental perception, amongst others. Not even the God of Mischief could trick me." The Grandmaster explained, pacing around the room.

"You basically let a revolution happened and let various people betray you? How did you even manage to do that?" Shuri asked.

"Because it's fun." The Grandmaster said as if it was the most obvious thing on Sakaar.

"So, you are not mad at Loki?" Peter asked.

"I already said, I am not." The Grandmaster replied.

Peter nodded. "Then will you make us fight in whatever thing you mentioned?" Peter asked, scratching his arm, thinking of all the possibilities he could escape from there.

"No! Of course not, every friend of my Loki has access to the palace, as long as you don't try to rebel against me like Loki did, one time was fun, but two times it's too much." The Grandmaster said, motioning the two kids to follow him. His plan was in motion: befriend the spider creature and the human, then follow them to where Loki is hiding. 

They entered a different room, it had a tall ceiling, and had a few cushions and chairs. There were a few people who appeared to be working but as soon as the Grandmaster entered they all left as soon as they could.

"Take a seat." The Grandmaster ordered, pointing to a few seats.

"Who were those people?" Shuri asked.

"My servants, the whole castle is full of them, they are trained to leave the room if I enter, unless told otherwise."

The two took a seat on the cushions and looked at each other. "What are we going to do now? This guy is weird." Peter whispered.

"We go with whatever he wants, if he is friendly, we are safe, if not we fight our way out." Shuri whispered back, making sure the Grandmaster couldn't hear.

At that moment a woman, dressed differently from the 'servants' walked in, she had a nice hairstyle and white paint on her face. "You wanted to see me?" She said.

"Scraper 142, nice to see you. Yes, I called you because we had a situation, someone was apparently trying to break in the palace, well technically they were inside already." The Grandmaster said, twirling his fingers as he usually did.

"You want me to take them out? Send them to the contest? You have workers for it you know?"

"Yes, I have servants, but I thought you would like the job. Anyway, well, the situation has changed, these creatures have now become my guests, and I'm assigning it to you to help them now." The Grandmaster ordered, smiling as usual.

"Who?" Scraper 142 said, looking annoyed. "And I better get some good payment and a few extra bottles of fire whiskey."

The Grandmaster pointed to Peter and Shuri who waved awkwardly at her. Peter and Shuri stood up and went to greet her politely, they didn't want to create any enemies. "Hello." They both said.

"What are these kids doing here?"

"Are they kids? Hadn't noticed, I just thought they were small. Anyway, they are friends of Loki’s, so they will have rooms at the palace." The Grandmaster ordered. "Have them settled in and I'm inviting you all to dinner with your majesty, I'm talking about me if you didn't know already.” The Grandmaster laughed. "Afterwards, you kids can tell me about your relationship to Loki." And with that he left, leaving them alone with Scraper 142.

"Wait? You know Loki? Who are you?" Scraper 142 said.

"We are friends of his, and we accidentally got separated while traveling in space. I take that you know Loki, Scraper one forty-two?"

"Huh, Apparently the moron has friends, who would have known... You can call me Valkyrie." She said, smiling at the two.

"You are Valkyrie?!" Peter said excitedly. "Thor has told us about you! You helped them escape from here didn't you! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"You know Thor?" She said puzzled. "You are from earth aren't you?" She sighed. 

Peter nodded. "Yes ma'am, my name is Peter, this is Shuri."

"Hi Valkyrie, I love that sword you have there." Shuri said looking at the Valkyrie sword. "I have a similar weapon at home that I created."

"Thanks. Now let's get you two settled in before The Grandmaster thinks I'm disobeying him. You can tell me about yourself while we move." Valkyrie ushered them as they excitedly told her about how they knew Thor and Loki. Her day just got infinitely longer. 

_________

They had already been showed to their rooms, and Shuri and Peter stayed there for a while, thinking of how they were going to get home. Hoping someone would come from them.

A few hours later Valkyrie returned to their room, telling them to get ready for dinner with the Grandmaster. The Grandmaster wasn't the type of person to invite people for dinner, he was more of a party type, throwing wild parties so he could get worshipped or doing his famous contest of champions, so, this was a rare occasion. She knew better than to trust it. 

They were all at a giant table, servants brought in their food, which Valkyrie and the Grandmaster ate with great appetite while Peter and Shuri eyed at their food, they were disgusted by it because they thought it looked like it had tentacles in it.

"Tell me, what are you? You had a peculiar suit when you arrived?"

"That was my iron spider suit." Peter said, looking away from his untouched plate and to the Grandmaster. "Where I am from I am known as Spiderman, I'm sort of a hero." Peter said shyly.

"So, are you part spider? I have never seen a part spider creature before." Grandmaster said interested.

"No, it's a long story, but, uhm, basically I got my powers from a radioactive spider, it bit me and then I started to have these superpowers. I used them to help people and then my dad- Tony, he got me the improved suits Tony is-" Peter continued ranting about his life on Earth, but the Grandmaster was getting bored.

If he was honest with himself, he only planned the dinner, so he could hear more about Loki. "That's really interesting Spider kid. Now, if you can tell me about Loki that would be great." He wanted to get Loki back to the planet because he was the only creature in a long time that he found interesting, Loki was like his own personal jester, in a twisted way. 

So, Peter went on a rant about Loki until it was getting late, and they all went back to their rooms, courtesy of Valkyrie, who was the one reminding the Grandmaster that some people do need sleep.

_____

The next day Peter and Shuri had convinced Valkyrie to show them around the city. Peter had to practically beg Valkyrie to show them around because, she "was not a babysitter and just wanted her fire whiskey." but then Shuri had showed her the gadgets she had brought with her. And the two girls bonded over the weapons, which made Valkyrie accept the babysitting job to wander around the city.

The three of them had practically toured all the city, most of it by air, as they travelled in Valkyrie's ship. They had taken a part of some celebrations Peter and Shuri did not understand, and overall, had a great time. Valkyrie ended up buying herself three bottles of liquor, well, she had brought one for each but then the kids told her they couldn't drink yet, so she drank all three.

It was getting late, Valkyrie was taking the kids back to the palace, when she got an incoming call from the Grandmaster.

"Today is the Contest of Champions, tell the half spider kid and that weapon girl that they can join me at the tower, you are welcome to come too Scraper 142. I'll be waiting." And the call ended without the Grandmaster waiting for an answer.

"Well kiddos, you heard him, let's go. You'll finally see what the contest of champions is."

She took them to the tower, where there was a large couch, and a few smaller couches facing a big glass wall that showed a giant fighting arena. The Grandmaster was already sitting there and his giant hologram in the middle of the arena was already introducing the champions.

The kids sat down to watched, while Valkyrie drank another bottle of liquor.

The fight started and a tall alien, who seemed to be made of rocks appeared on the arena fighting another alien. Peter and Shuri were amazed, not at the fight but at the whole different variety of aliens they had never seen.

"That is called Korg, he was a friend of Thor's and Loki's, he was on the ship with us, but he ended up back here like me and Miek, his friend." Valkyrie explained, pointing to the rock alien. "This is just a small fight, to start the contest, the real fighters will be fighting soon, although the Grandmaster hasn't found a contender like the Hulk."

"The Hulk battled here? Cool!" Shuri and Peter said almost simultaneously.

The Grandmaster turned around to see the kids and Valkyrie, he saw they were enjoying themselves and returned to watching his favourite mode of entertainment.

____________

"I know where they are." Loki said, appearing from his portal, quickly hiding the stone.

"What? Like for sure?" Tony asked, he was getting desperate.

Loki nodded. "I'm sure"

"You better be sure, or I swear I will end you." Tony warned, he really wanted to find Peter. Even though not even two minutes ago he was enjoying Stephen's company, it didn't help that each minute it passed he got even more anxious about being in space and thinking of Peter in a stranded planet. He never really stopped worrying. 

"I can take you to them, let's go." Loki said a bit out of breath.

"But won’t you get all weak like you did a few hours ago?" Stephen asked, frowning. He knew finding Peter was important, but he didn't want Loki to die or something, sure, he didn't quite like him yet, but he didn't want him dead. Stephen didn't know how Loki was making the portals but all he knew is it took energy out of him.

Loki shrugged. "eh, do not worry. Finding Peter and Shuri is what is important."

"If you say so... lead the way." Stephen said.

Loki opened a portal, being careful that the stone didn't show itself, and they went through it, appearing on Sakaar.

"Where are we?" Tony asked, looking around the city.

"Sakaar, now follow me." Loki said, taking a step forward and stumbling to the side. The trip took a lot of energy out of him and needed to rest, but he needed to find Peter and Shuri.

Stephen and Tony went to help him. "Are you okay? Are you sure you don't need to rest? We can always find them and come back to get you." Tony asked, looking worried that the god would end up fainting again.

"No, no, if they are where I think they are, only I can find them without getting killed." Loki said weakly, standing up with the help of the two other men.

"Alright, but we will help you walk so you don't use more energy." Tony bargained, not giving Loki a chance to answer back. "Where exactly do we go?"

"That giant tower over there, the one with a giant Hulk head."

___

The three made it to the outside of the palace with the minimum problems, Loki was still weak but apparently getting better. Once they arrived at the doors, there were a few guards there, when the guards saw the three men they immediately grasped their weapons and approached them.

"From now until further notice, let me do the talking if you don't want to end up dead or fighting for your life." Loki ordered, looking at both of them before turning his attention to the guards.

"Who are you and what are you doing in the palace? This is no place for common folk like you." One of the guards said, eyeing them judgingly.

Loki moved away from the help of Tony and Stephen to stand on his own, so he could look more authoritative. "I want a private meeting with the Grandmaster. Tell him that someone important is looking for him."

"You didn't answer the question, who are you. Plus, you are not getting a meeting with him, he is the ruler of Sakaar, he will not answer to you." Another guard observed.

"Fine then" Loki sighed, annoyed. "Tell him I found a worthy contender that could have defeated the Hulk."

"Alright." One of the guards said, lazily walking inside the tower.

Five minutes later the Grandmaster came out of his palace in his usual golden robe. "What is happening, I told you I was not getting any meetings this week! I already melted the other guard, I have visitors and I clearly instructed the rules you-" The Grandmaster stopped his angry rant when he saw Loki. "Well" he smiled. "If it isn't Loki..."

Loki gave him the most charming smile he could muster, hoping the Grandmaster wasn't mad at him enough to kill him. "Hello Grandmaster, it's been some time since I last saw you." He grinned, hiding the horrible feeling he felt like he was about to pass out.

"Loki, Loki, Loki. What brings you here again? Perhaps you want to try to overthrow my ruling again?" The Grandmaster asked, sounding angry, even though he was just messing with him.

"No, of course not, I am deeply sorry for the last part, you see, it was Thor's fault, the Sparkles guy... he made me do it-"

"Relax, sugar bear, I knew you were going to betray me the moment you planned it, it was fun watching you think you could deceive me." The Grandmaster gave him a flirty smile and a wink. "Now to the matters in hand, you are here for the kids aren't you? The weapon girl and the spider boy?"

"They are here?! Thank the norns!" Loki beamed, letting relief wash over him. Making him momentarily forget he was using all his determination to not fall to the ground right there and then. Which made him lose balance and fall, becoming weaker as he hadn't rested.

"Loki!" Tony and Stephen went to help but was stopped by the Grandmaster.

"Who are you?" He said, glaring at them while getting Loki.

"Relax, we are friends of his, we came to find the spider boy and her friend."

"Very well... what happened to Loki?"

“I’m fine, I just lost balance” Loki argued, trying to get up.

"He needs to rest." Tony didn't elaborate.

"Okay, you can enter and take the third door to your left, wait while I put Loki comfortably in his chambers, so he can rest. I'll call Scraper 142 to help you find the kids." And with that the Grandmaster left helping Loki, leaving Tony and Stephen to wander on the first section of the palace.

They entered the third room to the left and saw it was empty but a few seats. Stephen, not wanting to get in trouble in an alien planet, made him and Tony sit down.

"We should be looking for the kids! Not sitting here waiting from some weirdo with golden robes to appear, he took Loki, so he can't help us find them. We know they are here we shouldn't have to wait here, and if the robe guy wants to fight I'll fight him. I am getting my kid no matter what!" Tony snapped.

"So close yet so far, I get it... I know, but you need to relax. I don't trust that robe guy, it made Loki apologise which means he is powerful. When have you see Loki truly apologise." he raised an eyebrow in question. "Either way, now we need wait here. He said he was bringing someone to help us." Stephen answered back. He looked calm and relaxed, trying to calm Tony. Even though Stephen was the opposite of calm he was trying to not show it.

"You're right... I'm sorry. I- I'm just so worried about Pete and Shuri." Tony shoved his head in his hands. "Usually i am more useful, theres always something to do, that i can work with. But this? Waiting while my son may be in danger? No-uh. No can do."

"Hey" Stephen said, standing up from his seat and walking towards where Tony was seated, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, as I said before, you don't need to apologise. You are just one worried Dad."

"Thank you Stephen, you really are helping me keep my sanity." Tony said truthfully, looking at him with a tired smile.

"Come here, you need a hug." Stephen extended his arm. He wasnt one for affection but Christine often told him hugs were a good way to show support, lately he was giving it a try. 

"But-"

"I'm not the type of person to give hugs so this is a one chance offer. It looks like you need one."

Tony looked at him for a moment and accepted the hug. "You are wrong though…” he mumbled.

Huh?”

“You are a huggable person." Tony said, pulling away from the hug but had his hand linger over Stephen's hands.  "This is your second hug today you know."

"I'm not and if you mention this to anyone I will throw you in an endless portal, so you can continually fall." Stephen said seriously but giving Tony a small grin.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Gandalf. You giving hugs? The avengers wouldn't believe it." Tony gave out a chuckle, his eyes not leaving Stephen's.

"Are we interrupting something?" A voice said.

Chapter Text

The two men turned around and saw Shuri and Peter standing at the door with someone they didn't know.

"Peter!" Tony yelled running to his kid. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Have you eaten anything?" Tony said in a rush, frantically checking Peter for injuries.

"I'm fine, it's okay." Peter said, giving Tony a big hug.

"Are you sure? Because if anyone hurt you I can kill them just say the word." Tony said, hugging his kid and ruffling his hair.

"Dad, I'm fine I swear, we are fine and well" Peter responded, realising he called him Dad which made him stiffen up.

Tony heard Peter and he felt his heart warm up. He also felt Peter stiffen up and knew Peter might be embarrassed about it, so he tried to loosen it up. "So, it's Dad now?" He grinned at the kid.

"I, I well, I'm sorr-"

"Nope" Tony ordered. "Relax, this isn't the first time you called me that and honestly I don’t mind. Don't apologise, I'm just glad you are okay."

"Wait, what do you mean this isn't the first time I called you that?" Peter looked mortified.

"You called me that at your lab before you left with Shuri." Tony said.

"And when you got hurt at the Shakri fight." Stephen, who was checking up on Shuri moments before, chimed in.

Peter turned red and looked at Shuri for help, which she just smirked at him and shrugged.

"Relax, we are just relieved you both are alive and well." Stephen added.

"We are both really glad you are here, we started to think we would have to live here now or something." Shuri said. "It isn't the worst place to live but we were missing home."

"Of course, we came! Why did you think that?" Stephen wondered, frowning at the two.

"Well, the first two weeks we thought that we were going to get rescued but after that, we started to lose hope, Valkyrie even tried to help us formulate an escape plan, but it was going to be difficult and nearly impossible" Peter pointed at Valkyrie who was watching everything silently. "That’s her by the way" Peter shrugged. "So, then we just kind of... accepted it?" Peter whispered shyly, looking away from Tony.

"What the actual fuck do you mean by the first two weeks! How long do you think it has passed?" Tony screeched, his eyes widening while he feared for the answer.

"We have been here a few weeks, almost a month I think." Shuri mumbled.

"No, no, that can't be right! You guys were gone for only a few hours! You left this morning!" Tony gasped for breath, he couldn't believe Peter and Shuri were alone for a whole month.

"Time passes different in Sakaar, a few hours here can be merely minutes somewhere else." Valkyrie said.

"I'm sorry kiddo." Tony whispered.

"It's okay Tony, I know you would do what you could to find us. Which reminds me, how did you find us?"

"Loki, we got angry at him, so we left to find you on our own, but then he appeared telling us your location and took us here."

"Loki is here? Where is he? Is he ok?" Shuri asked looking around for her friend.

"He apparently can't teleport twice in such a limited amount of time, so he lost energy and the robe guy with the weird name took him to his room or something." Tony answered.

"He is with the Grandmaster then." Peter stated, looking at Shuri and Valkyrie a look which Tony was sure the three were having a conversation with their eyes. "Should we go find them then?"

"I don't think it's a good idea, the Grandmaster seems odd and I don't think he would like us to wander around." Stephen stated.

"Relax, we are somewhat friends of his. Well friends as in he is obsessed with Loki and we are Loki's friends therefore he tolerates us. Plus, Shuri, Val and I know this place well. We can even show you where we were staying."

________

"How are you feeling, sugar bear?" The Grandmaster asked Loki, who was resting on a couch with his eyes closed.

"I'm feeling quite better, thank you. I'm sure I'll be good to go in a few minutes actually." Loki said.

"That is great news," the Grandmaster smiled, "I'm sure those kids would like to say hello."

"About that," Loki opened his eyes and looked at the Grandmaster. "I am truly grateful at the amount of hospitality you have showed to them, I truly am... but I must ask, why? You and I both know you are not the nice type of guy to help people out." He frowned.

"Well isn't it obvious? Your friends are welcome here, because I knew sooner or later you would arrive here for them. So, I had to keep them well and alive."

"That's... actually nice. I am grateful, but Grandmaster, you do know that I will not be staying here right?" Said Loki, sitting up in his bed.

"Pardon? Why is that? You could literally be the second in command, rule by my side. Have anything you wanted." He really wanted him to stay, the amounf of mischief Loki could create in a day was marvellous and with him at his side he was sure he would not grow bored again. 

"Well, my family lives on Earth, I would love to stay but I can't leave them. I hope you understand." Loki paused. "And that you don't kill me.." he mumbled under his breath.

"I don't understand, but I will grant it."

"I'm sure we could get to an agree- wait what? You said I can leave unharmed?" Loki was confused, last time he practically had to fight his way out.

"Yes."

"What's the catch?  You can't just say that without a superior motive. I know you." Loki narrowed his eyes, frowning, he tilted his head a little.

"I'm coming with you, to this earth planet the kids have talked about." The Grandmaster stated.

"What." Loki stared at him.

"Not forever, just as in a- what is it that you people call it? As in a vacation, I should take one of those, I have been ruling this place since its creation. I have implanted enough fear in them that I can leave without there being another revolution." The Grandmaster explained, grinning at Loki.

Loki knew it was inevitable and just nodded, he could worry about telling Tony later. "Great!" He gulped, forcing a smile.

"Loki! There you are!" Shuri appeared from the door and ran to him, followed by Peter, Valkyrie, Tony and Stephen.

"Loki! How are you feeling?" Peter asked.

"Hello, children, it's nice to see you two. I was…worried. I apologise for accidentally causing all the trouble, the Jotunheim thing" Loki said, giving each of them a hug.

"It's all good, we are just glad we are going back home." Shuri said.

"I might still need more time to get my full strength, but after that we can all leave."

"Why leaving so fast Lackey?" Valkyrie teased, grinning when Loki rolled his eyes at the name.

"Valkyrie." He greeted with a smirk. "And it's Loki, Not Lackey." Loki sighed.

"I know, it's just fun to tease you."

"Hello to you too then, how is it going?"

"Good, got my booze, got my work, which apparently includes babysitting your friends." Valkyrie gave a small smile.

"Oh, c’mon you love us!" Peter and Shuri both said.

"Yeah.. you aren't that bad. But it was still babysitting."

"We are literally sixteen years old, it's not babysitting Val."

"In Sakaar or Asgard sixteen years old is basically a baby, and you humans are fragile, so I got to be careful you don't get yourself killed"

"Whatever." Shuri grinned, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I might be able to portal all of us back to earth, it's easier to create a portal somewhere I've been before. So, you don't have to worry about it Loki." Stephen, who had been quiet since he came in, said.  

"Thank you Strange, that’s a relief." Loki said, he really didn't want to portal again any time soon.

"Great, we make sure no one is missing, and we can go back home now, Thor must be worried." Stephen stated, looking for his sling ring in his pockets.

"Great, I'll get my travel stuff and I'll be back before anyone notices." The Grandmaster said, as he left the room.

"What on the actual hell is that guy talking about?" Tony asked.

"Well, he is coming with, he invited himself," Loki started, he saw Tony was about to argue. "he has done too much good to turn him down, plus he is a powerful immortal so..." Loki said shrugging.

"Fine, but it's your responsibility on earth, I don't want to have to deal with more aliens."

"Hey, Tony?" Peter asked.

"Yeah kid?"

"Can Valkyrie come too? Thor had invited her before and I think it would be great if she joined us! Remember she was the one who helped me and Shuri." Peter used his puppy eyes on Tony, hoping it would work.

"Fine, she seems like she won’t cause any trouble." Tony replied, he was too tired to argue with his kid right now.

"Yay!" Peter turned to Valkyrie. "Hey Val? Do you want to come with us to Earth? You can see Thor!"

"Thanks kiddo, but I don't think Earth is a place for me..."

"Please! Loki can always bring you back here if you want!" Shuri begged.

"Fine. But I'm just going because I know you two will keep begging if I don't say yes." Valkyrie sighed. She was getting fond of the kids.

"Yay!" Shuri said “I can show you all my creations!"  

The Grandmaster returned with a bag and some sunglasses. "I am ready."

"Alright, everyone going to earth is in this room?" Stephen looked around as everyone nodded. "Good, now Tony and... the Grandmaster can help Loki up and I will create the portal."

"I can stand on my own thank you." Loki said, standing up and slowly walking towards Tony and Stephen.

Peter moved closer to Tony, and he put an arm around the kid's shoulders as to make sure he wasn't going anywhere. Shuri stood next to Peter and Stephen created the portal, making all of them walk through before he walked through it last.

They walked through to the portal and ended up in the compound's living room. Thor, Bruce, T'Challa, and Rhodey were there. As soon as they saw the group they all stood up and went to greet their loved ones.

"Shuri! Thank Bast! I was so worried! When I found out you were missing-" T'Challa went to hug his sister.

"Hey, brother." Shuri hugged T'Challa, not responding with her usual friendly banter.

"No funny comments about myself or a random comment on my lack of meme knowledge? Are you okay sister?" T'Challa asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just missed you." Shuri said, hugging him again.

Meanwhile Thor and Bruce went to greet Loki. "Loki! I'm glad you found them- Valkyrie! Nice to see you. I didn't know you would be coming." Bruce smiled.

"Hey, big guy, nice to see you again." Valkyrie smiled, giving him a quick hug. "Thanks for fighting Thanos at the ship, it helped me, and a few others escape." She greeted him.

"Val! Nice to see you again, I’m glad you are well" Thor said excitedly and gave her a big hug.

"Wow you give strong hugs." She said as Thor ended the hug, still smiling.

"I know right," Bruce smiled and looked at Thor for a moment. "I'm sure he does extra workouts to hug better." Bruce half joked as he whispered to Valkyrie and giving Thor a loving smile.

Thor just looked at him pretended to be offended, he knew it was true, but he still was going to act offended.

Bruce laughed. "Stop with that face, you know it's true."

"I hate you." Thor smiled.

"Shut up you love me." Bruce replied.

"So...." she grinned, "you two are finally together then, I was waiting on that since Sakaar." Valkyrie gave them a knowing smile. Earning an eye roll from the two.

"Not to interrupt anything, but I'm sure you remember the Grandmaster." Loki interrupted, the Grandmaster was behind him awkwardly waving.

"What is he doing here Loki!?" Thor demanded, he was not fond of him after The Grandmaster had made him fight the Hulk and then zapped him with the shock disc thing.

"He helped Peter and Shuri at Sakaar, therefore he will be staying here for a short while. don't worry, he promised not to do any chaos." Loki explained before quickly leaving that area and introducing the Grandmaster to the rest of the avengers that were there.  
_
Rhodey saw the bunch walk in and went directly towards Tony, who was next to Peter and Stephen. "Tony! When I heard from Steve you left to space I got worried, I know you hate it there but I'm glad you have found the kids. Next time you need to notify your best friend, so I can help out, you can’t just go to space again like that! Hopefully neither Loki or Stephen caused any trouble." Rhodey said, he still didn't trust Stephen, he was always acting odd around Tony and Rhodey didn't like that.

Stephen just stared at Rhodey. He didn't understand what was up with Rhodey's hatred towards him.

"No need to worry Rhodey, Stephen was a great help and I am happy he came with me to space. And even though I still haven't forgiven him, Loki did help us in finding the kids."

Before Rhodey could respond, Peter interrupted. "Rhodey space was awesome! I met cool aliens and got to hang out with a few of them for a few days! I took pictures I need to show you all." Peter said enthusiastically, greeting Rhodey.

"That's great Peter!" Rhodey faked a smile, he was happy to see Peter all cheery, but he still needed to take care of some things before he listened to an excited teen. "You should show all of us in a bit. I think Steve, Bucky, Natasha, and Wanda will be here soon, and they would also love to hear all about your space trip! I sent Steve and Bucky to the lab to get a random piece from an old suit to keep them occupied because they were getting too annoying trying to help in finding you and Shuri. Natasha and Wanda left to get their nails done since Natasha lost a bet. I didn't tell them about the space situation, so they will be interested to hear." Rhodey said.

"Great!" Peter said. "So, since they aren't here yet I think I'm going to my room to change from these clothes, being wearing them for days now." Peter said, leaving to his room.

"What does he mean by days?" Rhodey looked at Tony questioningly.

Tony held his breath, he didn't want to be reminded that Peter and Shuri had been alone for weeks. He knew the kids seemed fine but that didn't stop his anxiety to kick in. He couldn't protect Peter. "I'm going to get a drink." He decided, not bothering to answer Rhodey. He knew his best friend didn't mean anything wrong and was just curious, but he was not in the mood to answer. It had been a long day. Tony excused himself and left to his penthouse, where he knew he had a stash of whiskey somewhere.

"Tony wait!" Rhodey shouted but Tony kept walking. "What the hell was that? Is he okay?" Rhodey asked worriedly.

"He, he is going through some stuff, but he will be okay." Stephen answered as he started to walk away towards the penthouse to get Tony.

"Yeah, right." Rhodey didn't believe him one bit. He didn't really know Stephen enough to trust him and was too worried about his friend. "I better check on him too. Just to make sure."

Stephen stopped Rhodey. "I better check on him, by myself, when he is like that he doesn't like too many people in the same room." And without saying another word, he walked to the elevator, taking him to Tony's penthouse.

Rhodey was left there pondering whether he should follow the wizard or not. "What the hell happened on space?" He whispered.

____
It had been about ten minutes and Rhodey wasn't thrilled at the thought of doing nothing while knowing that Tony was not okay for something that he said. Therefore, he decided it would be best to ignore Stephen's words to stay there and instead go to check on Tony. He took the elevator and informed Friday to take him to Tony's room.

As he was waiting in the elevator he realised that Tony had a strict set of rules for who could enter into his penthouse, that area was even usually restricted even to some of the avengers, excluding Peter, and himself and a few others. So, he wondered why Stephen apparently had access to it. Rhodey's thoughts were making less and less sense to him as he went into the spiral mess that were his trains of thoughts. Stephen was acting weird, he was weird, that Rhodey understood, what he didn't understand was why was Stephen acting strange around Tony? Did he want something from him? Was he plotting something? Rhodey always feared for the worst, because Tony was his dearest friend and he had been hurt enough, especially by the people close to him, so he was entitled to act cautious of Stephen. As the elevator stopped and Rhodey walked towards Tony's room his thoughts kept coming. He kept thinking about that he didn't like the fact that Tony seemed to trust the wizard guy, he didn't and didn't even understand why Tony trusted Strange.

He heard Tony was talking to Stephen, so Rhodey decided to do the right thing as his best friend and eavesdrop the conversation.

"Tony..." Rhodey heard Stephen said, a hint of sadness in his voice. Then there was a pause, Rhodey could hear Tony mumbling something but he was too far away to hear what his friend had said. "You don't mean that." Stephen stated, sounding pitiful.

"But I do Stephen, I fuck everything up, I can't protect anyone I care about, I couldn't protect Pepper, I couldn't protect Rhodey, which ended up almost killing him, and now I couldn't protect Peter! I can't stop thinking about what would have happened if something had happened to Pete... No wonder why everyone hates me, it's the logical thing to do, I wouldn't blame Peter if he decided to leave, I mean that's what they all do anyway."

Rhodey walked a little bit closer to the door, which was almost closed, giving him a chance to peek inside. Tony was sitting on the end of his bed, he had a bottle of whiskey next to him, but was almost full. Stephen was sitting near Tony but had his distance as he talked to him.

"Tony, that is not true, you don't fuck things up, you save them that’s what you do. And you do protect them, without you the world would have been exterminated a few times already, so don't start with that crap." Stephen said sternly, giving Tony a small poke to the side, making him smile for a second. "And, they don't hate you, many people care about you, and love you..." Stephen took Tony's hand and squeezed it slightly, "just look at Peter for example, he literally sees you like his dad. Everyone can see how much you mean to him. And Rhodey, he cares about you and you are practically his best friend, the avengers care about you, the world does, I do.. so don't you dare to think that of yourself." He looked at Tony, hoping the man could see how much truth he meant with those words.

Tony was sitting next to Stephen at this point, so he just rested his forehead on Stephen's shoulder. He had his eyes closed and was frowning. "Thank you Stephen... I guess you have some truth in what you said. Thank you for being here." Tony said.


Rhodey cursed himself silently, Oh, oh, OH, how stupid has he been! He had been worried that Stephen was plotting something against his friend, when all that was happening is that Stephen was pining on Tony. Rhodey smiled to himself. From those few minutes he spied them, seeing them interact when there wasn't a public, he saw Stephen was delicate with Tony, Rhodey could see the wizard cared deeply in the way he had spoked to Tony, how he had looked at his friend. Well this was unexpected, but hopefully Stephen would be something good for Tony.

“Oh." Stephen said, sounding more like his usual self. "If my diagnosis is correct, which it is, this right now, what you are doing is signs from either you had way too many drinks or sleep deprivation, the first one is definitely not the right one, because I arrived before you could drink your pain away, so, when was the last time you slept Tony?"

Rhodey realised he had missed part of the conversation when he was lost in his thoughts. He slowly backed away from the room but could still hear them.

"It seems since forever, with all the things that have happened. But, it’s been about two days."

"You know you need sleep right? You can't just run on caffeine."

"Yeah, but I had pulled an all-nighter, then you arrived, and I started working while you were reading and then... the Peter fiasco happened. So, sleep hasn't been on my priorities." Tony his voice was mumbled as his voice was covered by Stephen's shoulder, which Tony had his face resting on it.

At that point Rhodey realised he should really be leaving, he had eavesdropped too much and knew that now that he knew Stephen wasn't a threat, he should Not be here. He ignored the rest of the conversation and headed to the elevator.

Rhodey was walking towards the elevator but had his head facing Tony's bedroom, tiptoeing and making sure his friend didn't see him.

When he turned around to enter the elevator he was met by a very judgmental Peter.

"Peter! Hey!" He tried to sound casual.

"Where you just spying on Tony?" Peter questioned.

Rhodey knew at that point, Peter had probably been standing there long enough for him to find him eavesdropping. There was no point in lying. "Listen to me Peter, yes I was spying on him, I thought he might be in danger- no dont worry he isn't, I was wrong. Now, I will tell you all of it if you promise me not to tell him."

"Why should I do that? You know you are asking me to keep something from Tony Stark right? The person I trust more in the world apart from my aunt."

"Listen, I was worried about him, so I may have sneaked in to check on him," Rhodey immediately saw Peter worrying.

"Why were you worried?"

"Peter be quiet, keep your voice down. Yes, he is fine, and he will be fine as long as you don't tell him I was here. I will explain everything but not here." Rhodey glanced at the door then at Peter.

"Fine, Alright, but you better tell me the truth, or I will tell Tony." Peter said, entering the elevator, followed by a very relieved Rhodey.

"Of course. I'll tell you."

"But it will have to be later because we, we sort of have an issue." Peter stuttered, looking at him with a nervous smile.

"What do you mean?” Rhodey asked, already thinking of all the possibilities of what could have gone wrong.

“Nothing bad, I think. Well it might be not good news to Tony because he doesn’t like so many people at the same time-” Peter started to ramble but Rhodey stopped him.

“Kid, what are you talking about?” Rhodey asked, confused.

"That's why I was here, uhm.. I was looking for Tony... we have more visitors..." Peter said.

The elevator doors opened, revealing the new visitors, Rhodey knew chaos was ensured as he saw them.

The guardians of the galaxy.

Chapter Text

The Guardians of the Galaxy saw Peter and Rhodey walk from the elevator. They waved at the two while Quill, Rocket and Nebula walked towards them. Some of the guardians couldn't go to greet them properly because they were currently talking to other people. Mantis and Drax were talking to Thor, who was asking them about how their lives had been since the last time he saw them. Gamora was talking to Valkyrie, she was pleased to see that Val was there too as she had not expected to see her friend on earth of all places. 
Groot was talking to Shuri, repeating the same three words which Shuri apparently somewhat got the hang of and understood it. Groot was holding his video game with one arm giving it to her, probably asking Shuri to help fix it. And Nebula, Quill and Rocket were walking towards Rhodey and Peter.

"Hey, kid" Rocket said.

"Hey, Peter." Quill said, "I thought you were bringing your dad." He looked at Rhodey. "Hey, man, how you doing?"

"Hi." Rhodey said.

"Again, he is not my dad, and well I was going to go get him, but I found Rhodey on the way there and I forgot so I have to go back and bring him here I guess." Peter answered.

"Actually, he is busy, so I'll make sure I go tell him the visitor situation later." Rhodey added, stopping Peter from going to get Tony. He would have to explain why he was eavesdropping Tony to the kid later.

"Well since Stark isn't here I guess I'm going to talk to Shuri, I never thanked her for the metal arm." Rocket stated as he walked away from the rest toward Shuri and Groot.

Shuri was fixing Groot's game when Rocket went to thank her. The three of them started talking and a few minutes later Shuri was basically fluent in Groot. Neither of the guardians of the galaxy understood how Shuri was able to understand the tree so easily as it took Quill quite some time to learn it and Mantis and Drax took them over a year, right around the time when Groot was a baby, to understand the Groot language. Gamora was the only one unimpressed by Shuri's understanding of the new language as she could see the kid was smart and had potential.

Rhodey went to greet them all and had small talk with a few of the aliens, he was kind of awkward since the people he knew were busy and had to talk to the visitors, he even had a small conversation with the Grandmaster and he didn't understand the craziness of the guy. He realised he was more insane than Loki, which for him was saying something. Then Steve and Bucky arrived with a random piece of a suit, and it didn't take them much to realise Rhodey had sent them for the piece to get rid of them temporarily, but they didn't mind when they saw Peter was there, the two super soldiers went to greet the kid because they didn't know he had been found. Peter happily talked to them explaining them his multiple space adventures, Rhodey chimed in too, as he hadn't gotten a chance to properly hear what happened in space.

Peter was excitedly rambling about Knowhere, when Mantis and Drax overheard and also joined the conversation, Drax recalling him being on that planet with the rest of the guardians when they had first met. By the time Peter was telling his adventure on Jotunheim, half the people in the room were around him listening to him rant. Except Shuri, Loki, the Grandmaster, Valkyrie, Gamora and Thor, who were talking separately about other things.

That’s when Wanda and Natasha walked in, Wanda was cheerfully talking to Natasha, unaware of the packed room they had entered. Natasha immediately scanned the room assessing what was happening, shortly after, Wanda did the same.

"What is going on? Who are they?" Wanda pointed to Valkyrie and the Grandmaster.

Peter stopped talking and the rest turned around, Peter smiled at the two woman and went to greet them. "Hi Nat! Hi Wanda! Nice to see you here, I love your nails by the way." He pointed at the black nails of Natasha and scarlet red nails of Wanda, who had just returned from getting them done. "The girl over there is Valkyrie, you will love her she is awesome, and I'm pretty sure she fights better than Thor, she is Asgardian and a friend of mine Thor’s and Loki’s. The one next to Loki is the famous Loki's sugar daddy." Peter went closer to Natasha and Wanda and whispered. "He really hates when we call the Grandmaster that but it's still fun. And you know the rest of them so no need for introductions. " He summarised then looked at the guardians of the galaxy. 
"And we were just chatting, I was telling them of my space adventures with Shuri and Loki!"

"That is too much information I am not following, I get who they are but how did they get here and what do you mean space adventures? When the hell did you go to space?" Natasha chimed in, looking at Rhodey for answers.

"Well I basically went to space with Loki and Shuri, as I said before, Loki took us there, and I was telling them the story, you can listen too."

Wanda and Natasha nodded to signal Peter to continue, he quickly summarised the beginning of his rant again to the two ladies and then began rambling, when he got to the Sakaar part, halfway there, Rhodey interrupted Peter.

"So, you are telling me, you were gone for a month even though you left this morning?" Rhodey glanced at Peter for confirmation, when the boy nodded Rhodey suddenly understood. "Oh, that explains it." He muttered. He realised that's why Tony was in that state of a mess, he was glad he didn't interrupt Tony's heart to heart conversation with Stephen, Tony needed that after knowing his kid was alone for a month.

"Explains what?" Natasha and Peter said at the same time.

"Nothing. I was just thinking aloud, don't mind me." He replied.

_____

After Peter's storytelling, the people dispersed into separate groups. Steve and Bucky were chatting with Drax and Mantis, the aliens sharing stories of their home planets while Bucky and Steve were sharing stories about their life in the thirties and their lives during the war. They seemed to be getting along well. Natasha and Wanda met Valkyrie, which Peter had been right, and they got along pretty well. The three of them, along with Gamora and Nebula were enjoying each other's company as they shared fighting tips and mission stories. Natasha loved hearing about the Valkyries in Asgard and how powerful Val was, Wanda was amazed at Nebula's half robotic body and bonded with her as they both got experimented on, Wanda because the sceptre and Nebula because of Thanos.

Quill, Bruce and Rhodey were chatting while having some drinks while Quill mostly ranted about music. Thor was talking to Rocket, he was asking the god how the eye was functioning so far, Thor seemed to be doing fine with the prosthetic eye and confessed he often forgot he had a fake eye. 

Peter, on the other hand had convinced Loki, Groot and Shuri to play video games with him. He was going to show Loki and Groot his newest Star Wars game but then decided against it and instead chose GTA V. He knew Loki would like it because he could kill people there.

Shuri and Peter already knew how to play so they started explaining Loki and Groot the controls of the game. When the Grandmaster saw Loki was playing he immediately asked many questions of what the strange object was and if he could use it too. Peter nodded and started explaining what a video game was and then how to play it.

Groot understood quickly and became obsessed quite rapidly, Loki seemed to enjoy it but not as much as the other video games Peter had showed him. But the Grandmaster was loving the game and wanted to take it with him, Loki had to stop him. They played for a while, taking turns. No one was able to play better than Shuri in the mission parts and Loki and Groot chose to play in free mode when it was their turn to just mess around in the game killing people and stealing cars.

Peter was having fun, but he didn't quite want to be there at the moment. So, he slowly departed from the others playing video games and went to talk to Rhodey.

"Hey Rhodey, can I talk to you for a second?" Peter asked.

"Sure." Rhodey excused himself from the conversation and headed towards Peter who had moved away from the rest.

"I think I’m going to go home for a while. I miss May… I thought about her while I was gone, and I know for you guys it's been a day since I last saw May but for me it's been a month and well, I have to see her. And I'm telling you this because since Tony isn't here at the moment because you said he was busy, I needed to tell someone that I know will tell Tony of my whereabouts, so he doesn't freak out when he doesn't see me here." Peter rambled, then took a deep breath. "So, yeah, I'm going home but didn't want to say goodbyes to everyone because they are all busy, I'll be back tomorrow hopefully if not the next day." Peter had his bag he took to the compound and his hoodie on and started walking towards the door.

"Wait." Rhodey said. "How do you think you're going to get home? I don't see your spider-suit and you are not walking all the way there. I'm driving you. Let's go."

"I was going to take an uber probably... but okay. Thanks, Rhodey." Peter said sheepishly, following Rhodey to the garage.

They were on the car, Rhodey was driving and Peter was in the passenger’s seat. The first few minutes were quiet, none of them spoke and Peter spent most of time looking out the window.

"You never told me." Peter broke the silence, turning away from the window and looking at the man.

"Told you what?"

"Why you were spying on Tony. Because you were not even being subtle. You were full on peeking on the door and eavesdropping."

"Right, that." Rhodey mumbled. 
"Well, here goes nothing," Rhodey thought. "He was acting weird after he returned from the space trip, so I got worried. Plus, I didn't trust that Strange guy, so I was just checking if everything was okay."

"I see... he did get all worried at Sakaar..." Peter pondered for a second, "But why don't you trust Stephen? He is a nice guy and helps Tony."

"Because, I'm Tony’s best friend, and after all that has happened along the years, I didn't want him to get hurt again. I can see Tony trusts Stephen and usually people always want something from him, so I had to make sure Strange wasn't plotting anything bad."

"Well, I see your point, but Tony wouldn't like you eavesdropping. And you can trust Stephen, I got to know him after that alien invasion that happened not long ago, and he is a good guy, why did you think he was against Tony? He practically helped him after Pepper..."  Peter reminded him, Peter knew Rhodey was keeping something from him and he wanted the whole truth, he was going to get it.

"Because he was acting weird around him, but then I realised why and now it's all okay. So, you can just not tell Tony, and everything will be fine." Rhodey pleaded.

"Well? What did you find out? Don't keep me waiting."

"If I tell you, please keep your mouth shut.” Rhodey warned. Peter nodded eagerly. Rhodey took a deep breath and continued. "All this time I distrusted of Stephen because of how he was acting, turns out it was cause he was pining for him, I can see it, and I'm pretty sure Tony likes him back. Which means Tony could have a chance to be happy, and let's be honest, Peter, after all he has been through he deserves it." Rhodey explained.

Peter nodded, what Rhodey had said made sense, that could mean something nice for Tony. He did see a change of personality when Tony broke up with Pepper to when Tony started to hang out more with Stephen. He was happier. "But why do I need to keep my mouth shut?"

"Because," said Rhodey, "if I know anything about Tony, is that he might have been a playboy before but in real relationships he is oblivious. It took him too long to realise he liked Pepper, it literally took him to almost die to realise he had feelings for her. So, my guess, the same thing is happening right now, he is oblivious of it, I think he likes Strange but doesn't know it yet, so we have to let it play out and see."

"Got it, won’t say anything then." Peter said seriously. "I guess now that I think about it, it makes sense and Tony and Stephen would make a good couple." He smiled.

"Yeah, that's true." Rhodey agreed. "So, you won’t tell Tony about the eavesdropping thing?" Rhodey asked, making sure Peter was not snitching on him.

"A deal is a deal, you told me what was going on and I won’t tell on you."

"Thanks, I know lying to your dad is not your idea of ideal, so I appreciate it." Rhodey said, emphasising on the dad part.

"He is not-"

"Peter, he sees you as his kid, you see him as your dad, accept it, it's adorable."

"Hmm." Peter didn't say anything else and looked out the window again.

The rest of the drive was quiet. Then Rhodey dropped him off at his aunt's apartment. Saying goodbye Peter headed inside, opening the door looking for aunt May.

May was in the kitchen getting two cups of coffee when Peter came in.

"May!" Peter exclaimed as he ran to give her a hug. Not realising there were guests in the living room.

"Peter, what are you doing home so early, I thought you were spending the weekend with Tony?"

"I-" Peter stopped himself, he couldn't tell May he had been in space for a month. That would certainly give her a heart attack. "I just missed you. I can go back to Tony's later, that can wait, now I just want to spend some time with you."

May wasn’t convinced by his explanation, but she decided that was something she could dig into later. "Oh, sweetie, of course, I'm just going to tell my guest that we can continue gossiping later." May smiled, ruffling Peter's hair.

"You have guests? I'm sorry, I am interrupting, I'm just going to go to my room and we can hang out tomorrow." Peter said nervously, it wasn't usual May had her friends over because she had never time with all the extra shifts and working late, so Peter felt bad he was interrupting.

"It's okay, Pepper won’t mind, or you can join us, we were just talking gossip and stuff.”

"Pepper? As in the Pepper Potts?" Peter was confused, he didn't know May and she were friends.

"Yup, we were gossiping about stuff, like you, the avengers... Tony..." May said.

"I really should let you guys talk." Peter decided headed to his room.

"Nonsense Pete, come." May instructed, walking to the living room with two cups of coffee. "Hey Pepper, guess who decided to show up, I hope it's alright if he joins the conversation."

“Yes of course it’s alright” Pepper stood up smiling at Peter. "Hey, Peter, it's been a while."

Peter greeted her. "Hi Pepper."

Chapter Text

Peter awkwardly sat next to May on the couch facing Pepper. They started chatting about Peter's life, bombarding him with questions about how he was doing at school and how his friends Mj and Ned were doing. After a while, Peter found a chance to escape the never-ending questions he was being asked by asking Pepper and May about their friendship. He knew they had met each other while he was at space fighting Thanos, but he didn't know the two had been meeting each other for coffee to chitchat regularly. May and Pepper explained that indeed they met while he and Tony had disappeared, and they began being friends, bonding because of how worried they were for Peter and Tony. And after the whole situation they decided to keep in touch, as Pepper usually wasn't one for having too many friends as most of them only wanted to know Stark Industry secrets of some kind, and May didn't go out with friends at all because of all her work. And from keeping in touch they now went for coffee at least once a week if possible.

A while after they started talking Pepper finally asked what she wanted to ask Peter since the moment he arrived. "How is Tony doing?" Suddenly Pepper's worries were evident on her face.

"Uhh.." Peter was not ready for that question. He knew what Pepper meant, the two hadn't talked to each other after the breakup and Pepper knew how bad Tony could get.

"I tried contacting him a couple of times, but he isn't answering, and I've been worried. Is he okay?" Pepper continued. Couple or not, Tony was a dear friend of hers and she cared for him. A mere break up would not stop her from checking up on him. 

Peter didn't know what to say, Tony had been miserable for a while, but with help from the avengers and Stephen, especially Stephen now that Peter knew, he didn't know what to say. "He is okay now."

"Now?" It was May who asked. She didn't talk much about Tony with Peter, she knew better than to pry about that.

"Yeah, I mean, breakups are always hard aren't they? but with help of the avengers and a few others he is okay. Well, he is getting there."

Pepper's worries diminished, her face softened as she gave Peter a weak smile. "Okay, good to hear." She bit her lip thinking if she should ask Peter more or not. "Hey, Peter? Has he asked about me? Mentioned me? I know how hard it was for him when we were on a break a few years ago, and I don't want to repeat that." She wasn't asking to go back to dating him, she just knew him too well and preferred to ask more questions than neccessary than be sorry later. 

"Not that I have heard, and he is doing okay, he is starting to smile more lately. I think." Peter said. Since he had been gone for a month, well for a day, but for him he hadn't seen anyone for a month, he didn't quite remember much if Tony did mention Pepper at some point.

May eyed him weirdly when he answered, she was so going to interrogate him later. Something was off.

"That's good. Him smiling is always a good sign." Pepper said. If she was honest with herself she kind of wished that Tony would have been contacting her by now. Maybe she should stop by at the compound sometime soon.

______

The next day, after Peter had spent the afternoon and night with Pepper and aunt May, he woke up early and got ready to head out to the compound. He didn't know how much time Groot was going to stay plus, he enjoyed playing video games with him and Shuri and the rest.

He arrived at the compound expecting to see, honestly he wasn't expecting anything, but he certainly wasn't expecting this.

On a table, Rhodey, Tony, Stephen, T'Challa, Quill and Gamora were drinking while looking as if they hadn't slept in weeks. He didn't see any of the rest of the Avengers nearby, but he did hear Shuri and Groot shouting at video games.

"Hey, Tony, hey everyone, why do you all look like that?"

"We should've never introduced them to each other." Tony said.

"It was bad with you, Shuri and Loki and now there is another one, I swear my sister is creating an army to end me." T'Challa ominously responded.

"Since you left kiddo, Shuri has been introducing Groot to pop culture, and Loki is creating chaos. Groot is being Groot." Quill said.

"And she didn't wait till I got here? Rude." Peter huffed, rolling his eyes. He walked to where he could hear Shuri and the rest laughing. "She better not have shown Groot the vines."

_____

"You did not!" Peter had his mouth wide open. Shuri and Loki had taught Groot all the vines, even the Grandmaster knew some of them, he didn't understand them like the rest though.

"Sorry, Peter Man, Shuri started showing the tree the iconic vines and well, I had to join, and the Grandmaster was curious about them too."

"Did you really teach him all the vines?" Peter asked. "Even the fresha va ca do?”

"I am Groot"

"That’s a yes." Shuri translated.

Peter was quiet for a second, scratching his head, thinking. "Okay, if you guys really know your vines. I'm calling for a challenge. I've got homework, but this sounds more fun."

"What challenge?" Shuri frowned but was smiling mischievously at Peter.

"The ultimate one. Who is in?"

"I'm in."
"Why not?"
"Count me in."
"I am Groot."

"Great. Now listen up, here are the rules. If someone starts a vine, the others have to finish it, no matter who is in the room, no matter what. First one who can't finish a vine is out, and so on..."

____

The first one to lose was the Grandmaster, as he didn't know many vines to the same extent as the others. The kids were with Wanda and Vision, spending some time with them when Shuri yelled. "Can I get a waffle?"

The Grandmaster was confused, he probably slept through those vines and shrugged. Meanwhile Loki and Peter responded back to Shuri just as loud.

"CAN I PLEASE GET A WAFFLE."
"I AM GROOT"

The kids cackled up high-five-ing each other while looking at the confused face of the Grandmaster and Wanda. Vision just shook his head. Him being able to know all the information from the internet was well aware of their weird inside jokes.

____

Their day went by quickly, throwing vine references back and forth, neither of the four children would yield. They had already gone through various vines, making everyone uncomfortable.

One of the times, Bucky and Steve were sitting on the counter as they were enjoying a snack before they headed to the gym downstairs to train, after all, everyone had been a little lazy after Thanos and they needed some training. Peter walked in first, followed by Shuri, Groot and Loki.

"Two bros." Peter started at a normal tone of voice.
The rest continued while increasing the volume.

"I am Groot."

"FIVE FEET APART"

"’CAUSE THEY’RE NOT GAY"

Steve looked at them confused while Bucky snickered, having heard that video once a few weeks ago, he had a vague idea what was going on.

Then, the vine challenge continued, the kids were spending some time with Natasha, Sam and Rhodey, Peter giving them ideas to improvise their suits and Shuri telling them which way was more effective. Loki was currently spending some time with the Grandmaster, as he was like a cat, demanding for attention when Loki was busy.

"I am Groot."

Shuri and Peter both stopped what they were doing and loomed at each other with a smile before answering. "Welcome to Chili’s!"

"Kid, you know this is not Chili’s, right?" Rhodey asked confused, wording it slowly.


The next time, Thor almost killed Loki for it.

Shuri and Peter were taking a break, playing some video games, while Groot was spending time with his family. So, Loki decided it would be a good idea to sneak into the weaponry area, steal a gun and scare the kids.

Loki walked to the room and shot the gun to the air.

Shuri and Peter jumped as they turned around, their brains understanding what was happening.

"THIS IS WHY MOM DOESN’T FUCKING LOVE YOU."

The three of them laughed until Bruce and Thor came running into the room with Thor's axe, looking for the source of the gunshot.

Needless to say, Thor did not take it well when he found out Loki was the source of the problem. Bruce just sighed, shaking his head as he calmed Thor down. So, they left, forgetting to take the axe with them.

The three teens ended up playing Mario Kart while Groot appeared. Making an unspoken truce to not do another vine until their other contestant showed up.

So, there they were, playing the rainbow road, when Peter felt a poke on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Groot was standing there poking him for attention.

"Hey Groot, what's up?" Peter said pausing the game.

"I am Groot."

"What did he say? I'm not that good at translating Groot yet."

"He said this bitch empty." Loki and Shuri replied.

Peter turned around and only now realised what the little shit had planned. Groot was holding the Storm breaker in his hand, giving it to him as he repeated the vine. Peter understood that Groot wanted to eliminate him out of the challenge, knowing not everyone can pick up that axe, therefore making Peter unable to finish a vine and disqualifying him. Peter smirked, barely anyone knew he could pick it up.

Without breaking eye contact he grabbed the axe and threw it across the room. "YEEEEET" he screamed.

______

In the afternoon, Steve and Bucky had convinced a few people to go sparring to train a little and even convinced Peter and Loki to join. Shuri was fine watching everyone but not participating in the training, she knew she was good and preferred her gadgets over hand to hand combat.
Groot immediately said no and left with Rocket and Mantis.

So now in the gym, Steve, Bucky, Peter, Loki, Natasha, Wanda, Gamora, and Thor were waiting to start sparring. Shuri and Sam decided to just watch.

The super soldiers went first, taking the training extreme and fighting well, Steve would throw in some punches, and occasionally kicks, Bucky would deflect them and return the punches, in which Steve would deflect the punches and return them, and so on.

Natasha and Thor went next, Natasha was eager to try some of her newest moves against a bigger opponent, and trying them against Thor would suffice. He was the perfect candidate. Natasha threw in some kicks, some Black Widow moves, and the iconic legs-around-the-opponent's-throat moves. Thor mostly deflecting the moves and throwing some back. Neither of them had the advantage.

Then was Wanda and Gamora. Gamora had asked if she could battle the magic girl, wanting to see how her own abilities affected someone who didn't have to be near her to attack. Wanda used her magic, deflecting the fake knives that Gamora was throwing, and threw some attacks on the green girl, making her fall a couple of times. It looked like Wanda had the advantage until Gamora was able to get close enough to Wanda, using her super assassin skills to pin her to the ground in a few seconds.

Lastly, Loki and Peter went. Peter didn't have his web shooters and Loki was forbidden to make any illusions or weapons appear, making it a fair fight. Before they started Loki said, "Ready to fucking die?" He threw in a small punch.

"I'm a bad bitch you can't kill me!" Peter deflected the punch and kicked him in the legs, making Loki almost slip.

"What the hell?" Sam said looking at the current avengers.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, they have their inside jokes." Steve shook his head, thinking how odd the kids these days were.

Peter avoided a punch from Loki, making a flip in the air and landing behind him. Then avoided three more hits before Loki got him on the face. Peter stood up and went for the knees, making Loki fall.

"Brother you need to train more, Peter and Shuri have made you go soft." Thor teased, laughing.

"Shut up." Loki said, deflecting various punched from Peter.

"Hey, Jared, could you read number twenty-three please." Shuri yelled at Peter, momentarily distracting him from the training.

"No, I cannot." Peter let out a laugh before ducking from Loki.

"Waddup, I'm Jared, I'm nineteen, and I never fucking learned how to read." Loki said in the most serious voice, making Peter lose concentration. Loki saw his opportunity and took him down. "I win."

"That wasn't fair! I got distracted!"

"You need to know how to focus on fights, Peter."

"I know how to, but this is training, come on, one more round you coward!"

"Fine."

"Yay." Peter charged again, going full Spiderman, throwing punches, deflecting Loki.

Until, Loki had the wonderful idea to jump on him. He knew he weighed about 500 pounds, a usual amount for a Frost Giant, and would definitely catch Peter off guard, making him win as Peter fell due to the weight. So, he jumped on Peter planning on knocking him out, but instead Peter caught him with barely any effort.

"Dude, what the hell." Peter snorted. "Also, you are a bit chubby now that a think about it."

Thor and Loki were both confused. "Kid, you are carrying 500 pounds like if it’s nothing."

________

There was an Avengers dinner that night, Tony had ordered food from around 8 different restaurants, and had enough food for the Avengers and guests.

Shuri and Peter were discussing the vines, thinking of a way to take down Groot and Loki from winning. They decided they would try various vines, hoping they wouldn't know some of them, and annoying them in the process with it.

They found Groot first. "Hey Groot. Did you know Steve and Bucky were roommates before the war?” Shuri asked.

Peter was quiet, doing his best to not blurt out the vine reference, giving Groot a chance to answer. "Oh my god! They were roommates?" He thought to himself, trying to keep a straight face.

"I am Groot." Groot didn’t understand it was a reference, and asked if they were joking.

"No, I'm not joking they were roommates." Peter said.

"And you just lost the challenge." Shuri laughed, running away with Peter to find Loki.

They found Loki while he was heading to the dining room.

"Hey Loki. Let’s go to the beach beach."

Loki frowned confused, then his eyes widened. "No, I know this is one of the vines." He cursed under his breath. "I wish I could remember it."

"Ninki minjaj." Peter said laughing.

Now it was up to Shuri and Peter to become the winner of the challenge.

Everyone was at dinner; the food was getting ready to be served. Stephen and Tony were sitting together, Stephen trying to explain how his magic worked to Tony for the millionth time. Next to them were Rhodey, Peter, Shuri, Loki, Thor, Bruce, and Natasha. On the other side of the table were Steve, Bucky, Sam, and the guardians of the galaxy. Wanda and Vision were at the far end of the table.

"Hey how much money do you have?" Peter asked casually, hoping Shuri wouldn't recognise it.

"69 cents."

"Eh, you know what that means!" Peter finger gunned.

Shuri started to fake cry. "I don't have enough money for chicken nuggets."

"Kids, please, dinner is about to start." One of the adults said.

Once the plates were served, Peter got his plate with an avocado, he had an idea. "Hey Shuri, look, an avocado."

Shuri looked at him giving him the do-you-really-think-I-would-miss-this-vine? Look.  "Thaaaaaaanks."

The Avengers ate in peace for a while, both Shuri and Peter were too busy thinking of the ultimate vine to end the other. They had already the entry course and the main course, waiting for the beloved dessert, meaning ice cream. "Whoever threw that paper." Peter whispered.

"Your mum’s a hoe." Shuri said, making everyone turn around.

Peter was cackling too much he almost snorted his drink.

"Fine, you asked for it." Shuri said. "Who's that Pokémon?"

Peter mumbled something under his breath and yelled at the dinner table. "IT’S PIKACHU!"

"It's Clefairy."

"FUUUCK"

"Peter, what the hell, we are trying to eat. Stop it with your memes for one second please." Rhodey whispered, covering his forehead with one of his hands, looking tired.

"Yeah kids, you seriously doing memes? Right in front of my salad?" Tony said, an evil smile forming on his face as Peter's and Shuri's faces paled at the sight of Tony using that meme.

"You did not just say that." The two teens groaned while covering their heads with their hands.

Chapter Text

A couple of days had passed since the Vine Challenge between Loki and the kids. Shuri and Peter ended up in a tie, that was, after spending some time trying to outsmart each other in meme knowledge until Shuri had to return to her home in Wakanda with her brother, T'Challa because she needed to continue her work, after all, she was the princess of Wakanda.

The guardians left a two days after said challenge, thanking the avengers for hosting them in the compound and inviting them. Groot didn't want to go, but after Shuri gave him two new video games, he agreed to leave. The Grandmaster left as soon as he realised, that because of the time zones, he had left Sakaar for about a year and needed to get back before a new revolution began. That didn't stop him from making Loki promise that he would visit now and then, after all, he had now discovered where Loki lived and threatened to show up again if Loki disappeared for too long.

Valkyrie was asked if she wanted to return to Sakaar, but decided to travel around the universe and Earth, borrowing one of the pods from the guardians before they left for when she wanted to leave earth. But for now, Tony linked her with his contacts, so she could explore the entire planet if she wanted.

So, the avengers were at peace again, without having to deal with extra aliens, even though said aliens were friends, having more people around was exhausting.

Everyone was having a good time, except for Rhodey, which Peter was having too much fun with Rhodey's suffering.

It had been a couple of days since Peter and Rhodey found out about Tony and Stephen, making them extra aware of every oblivious thing the two men did around each other while lowkey flirting. Rhodey couldn't stand one more stare that lasted too long to seem normal, or when Tony worked in his suit and Stephen passed him something and their fingers touched for a tad too long. Rhodey was not having it, he had almost barged between them to shout. 'Just kiss already' a couple of times, but he had enough self-control not to spoil that for Tony. The worst part for Rhodey was that his friend showed no signs of actually having registered in his brain that he had a crush on a certain wizard. For a genius, he was a pretty big dumbass sometimes.

Peter on the other hand, was having a good time. Watching Rhodey suffer because of the obliviousness of his father figure and his crush was great. Rhodey made funny expressions with his face when literally no one but them notice how Tony and Stephen interacted. Although Peter had some assumptions that Bruce had an idea of what was happening, but he decided not to say anything.

The situation also seemed to have Peter and Rhodey bond more, Peter started to see Rhodey as an uncle and began being more comfortable around him, throwing more jokes and banter with him. Unlike the first few times Peter met Rhodey, which had consisted on awkward small talk.

______

It was a Saturday afternoon when Peter had showed up at the compound, he was going to upgrade his Spiderman suit because in one of his latest patrols, his web shooters got damaged while fighting two bad guys. So, Tony had told him he could bring the suit anytime and they could fix it and even upgrade it. Peter loved the idea.

He could have arrived earlier but today was one of the rare Saturday's that May had no work so Peter decided to spend it with her. They rented a movie and bought two bowls of ice cream to eat while watching the movie.

It was until May started getting a ton of messages (which Peter later found out were from Pepper), that he mentioned he had to go to Tony's so that way May could attend the friend who was texting her. Peter knew if Pepper was spamming May it was probably important, so he excused himself. May had asked if he was sure and when he reassured her, she texted Pepper to come over.

As Peter was heading out the door to get into Happy's car he greeted Pepper as she came into the small apartment greeting May and having a very expensive looking bottle of wine in her hands, looking distressed.

So, he entered the compound and greeted everyone as he usually did and headed to Tony's lab. He was used to finding Stephen and Tony working together on something when he went to work with Tony, but he did not expect to walk into a red cloak.

"Whoa." Peter stumbled over the cloak almost dropping his bag.

"Kid!" Tony exclaimed, smiling at him while giving him a hug.

"Hi, Peter." Stephen said warmly.

Peter swore he saw Tony and Stephen take a step farther from each other as he entered. He saw them too close while he was busy bumping into the red cloak. He decided to shut his mouth. "Hi Tony! Hi Stephen!" He turned around to face the red cloak. "Hello Cloaky"

The cloak stood there for a second, as if it was thinking if it should be mad at the nickname or not. Finally, the cloak decided to move from it's spot it was levitating to Peter's shoulders.

"It likes you." Stephen stated, sounding perplexed and amused. "That's really uncommon, it took weeks for it to like Tony."

"That's because everyone likes the kid more than me." Tony said with a warm smile.

Peter felt important as he felt the heavy cloak on his shoulders. He patted the cloak as he smiled. "Well Cloaky seems great."

"Well..." Tony said sounding unsure at Peter's comment, jokingly. "Anyway, you came for an update on the suit?"

"Uh... yeah, my web shooters broke, and you told me I could come anytime this week and we could work on them and the suit." Peter said, scratching the back of his head.

"Of course, just let me clean this mess up and we can start." Tony motioned to his suit on the table which he was tinkering with.

"If you are busy I can come back later, it would be no problem. Plus, I can show off I stole Cloaky." Peter said rapidly, realising Tony was busy and Peter should have asked if he could come beforehand.

"No, no, kid is all good." Tony assured.

"Tony, it's no problem, I'll just come back later." Peter decided, leaving to search for Rhodey or any other avenger.

_____

"Hey Rhodey, behold!" Peter said as he walked into the room, levitating one feet above the ground with the Cloak.

"What the f- shit." Rhodey's eyes widened. "How did you end up with that? I thought it hated everyone."

"Cloaky loves me. And it's letting me fly with it."

"So, did Stephen let you take it just like that?"

"He didn't have a choice really, Cloaky decided for itself, plus he was too busy pining on Tony..." Peter laughed

"Fair."

At that moment Cloaky moved Peter as if it was dragging him to the front door.

"Uh Rhodey. A little help?" Peter nervously looked at him.

Cloaky shook one of its corners as to stop Rhodey and tell him no, then the Cloak took Peter by levitating him. Rhodey panicked. Tony was not going to like to hear the news his kid was kidnapped by a sentient Cloak.

Rhodey panicked for five whole minutes debating whether he should tell Tony. But he decided against it. He was heading to get his own suit to go search for the kid when he received a call from Peter.

"Hey, kid. Are you okay? Where are you? What the fuck is wrong with that cloak."

"Hey Rhodey, uh, everything is okay, uhm the cloak took me to the New York sanctum, where Stephen works... can you come pick me up? If I ask Tony he will probably get a heart attack."

_______

Rhodey stepped off his car and knocked on the giant doors of the sorcerer's sanctum. "Peter?"

The doors opened, and he walked in. He saw Peter was calmly sitting next to a hovering cloak and a man in sorcerer robes that looked similar to Stephen’s.

"Peter?"

"Rhodey, hi!" Peter said as he saw him. "Thanks for picking me up, the cloak took me here, I still don't know why though, but then I met Wong. Rhodey meet Wong, Wong meet Rhodey." Peter introduced the two men. "Wong is like Stephen's best friend and also works here with magic and stuff. I was just telling him about you when you arrived."

"Hello." Wong greeted.

"Hi." Rhodey returned the greetings.

"So, the kid was telling me that the cloak took him here. Any idea why?" Wong asked.

"I'm just confused as you are, I don't really know the cloak."

The cloak started moving it's edges as if it was trying to tell them.

"Anyone understand that?" Peter asked.

"Stephen is the only one who does, have you tried calling him?" Wong asked, then looked at Peter. "Did you even tell him what the Cloak did?"

Peter looked down. "No, he would panic and so would Tony. Better not tell them."

"Peter, I'm sure Stephen would notice if his freaking cloak is gone." Wong pointed out.

"Nah, he is too busy pinning on Tony he doesn't notice anything." Peter laughed at his comment but stiffed when he realised he wasn't supposed to talk about that because no one knew.

"You know too?" Wong stopped everything and looked at Rhodey and Peter. "Finally, someone else knows" he said relieved.

"How did you know?" Rhodey asked.

"Well, let's say he hasn't been too subtle and it's getting annoying how he hasn't done any moves and is just pinning on Stark like an idiot." Wong rolled his eyes at the thought of his friend dealing with his crush.

Rhodey was smiling. "Oh, I'm sure we will get along just well, Wong."

______

Rhodey and Wong did get along well, they spent a big amount of the time at the sanctum talking about their oblivious white boys who are being dumb over their pining. They traded ridiculous stories of Tony and Stephen when the lovebirds thought they were being subtle around each other but weren't.

Wong told Rhodey how Stephen had acted different since he came back from Titan, but crush thing became evident a while after space. In return, Rhodey told Wong his experience with the crushing Tony, how he was basically oblivious to having feelings for the wizard, or at least that's what it looked like.

Peter was glad Rhodey had found himself a ranting buddy but instead of listening to them he explored the place with the cloak.

They stayed for about an hour until Peter received a call from Tony.

"Peter, where are you, Friday tells me you left more than an hour ago."

"Uh, I am at the Sanctum with Rhodey and Wong, Stephen's friend. I can get there in a few minutes, I'll be on my way-"

"What?! Why are you there? How did you get there?" Tony said.

Peter let out a nervous laugh. "Well you see.. Cloaky kind of took me here and then Rhodey came here so you don't have to worry, plus I met Wong and-"

"Kid- just stay there I'm going to get you." Tony said as he hanged up.

Seconds later, yellowish and orange sparks started forming as Stephen created a portal there. Tony and Stephen appeared on the room shortly after.

"Kid, you can't just go wandering off." Tony said as he ruffled the kid's hair. "Stephen why did your cape took my kid here?" Tony asked demandingly.

"It has a mind of its own, I have no idea, but I'll talk to it later." Stephen said with his usual calmness but looked sternly at the cloak. The cloak hunched and returned to the sorcerer's shoulders to ask for forgiveness. "No, you can't go kidnapping kids, you can excuse yourself to another room now." He said to the cloak.

The cloak left, and everyone left in the room was staring in awkward silence at Stephen's and Cloaky's interaction.

"So, should we go fix my suit Tony?" Peter changed the subject, breaking the silence as he turned to his mentor.

"Uh, yes, the suit it needs to be fixed. Let’s do that." Tony answered as he was snapped back from whatever thoughts he got lost on.

Stephen created another portal for them. Tony turned around to face Rhodey, who was next to Wong drinking a cup of tea. "You coming?"

"Nah, I'll be back later, we are having a very important conversation right now." Rhodey said turning back to Wong, waiting for the others to go so they could resume to talk about their dumb boys.

"Okay." Tony said unsure but walked through the portal either way. Peter went first then Tony and lastly Stephen.

______

Tony and Peter were working on the Spiderman suit for a while now while Stephen spent the time reading one of his books from the sanctum.

They had already fixed the web shooters and were now upgrading the suit's functions, and different protocols.

Tony had been working more quietly than usual, Peter had rambled as usual and Tony was always glad to hear his kid rant about his day or some new thing he did with his friends. But today he wasn't paying as much attention as he usually would, as he had this one thought that he couldn't place. Tony had forgotten he had invited Peter today, or did he? He had no recollection of any plans on having Peter on the compound this weekend, so he wasn't expecting the kid to show up earlier. But he thought it was a nice surprise, after the day he had had.

"Hey Pete, I gotta ask, did we agree on meeting today? Not that I don't love having you here, it’s the opposite but I thought this was a Saturday for May?" He scratched his head. "And I just want to make sure I didn't confuse the dates again. You know how my brain gets confused with little sleep."

"No, no, don't worry you didn't forget. I just came here uninvited cause you said I could show up to fix the suit anytime. Sorry for not asking if I could come here before." Peter explained rapidly.

"Don't apologise, I was just curious. You are always welcome here. But wasn't this a day May had off?"

"Yeah, it was. I actually spent all morning with her but..." Peter pondered if he should tell Tony about the Pepper thing. "Well Pepper started texting May, basically spamming her and I told May I had to come here so she could invite Pepper for whatever she needed, which was probably a good cause because when she arrived she looked distressed." Peter finished his summarised rant.

Tony visibly tensed up and stopped tinkering with whatever he was working. "Of course." He mumbled. And Stephen, who had been listening to Peter had moved closer to Tony as the kid rambled about Pepper. The wizard put a hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Everything okay Tony? Did I say something wrong?" Then Peter mentally cursed himself. " I shouldn't have mentioned her should I." He said wincing.  

"It's all good Petey, don't worry." Tony took a deep breath and picked up a screwdriver he had next to him, trying to go back to his work.

Peter was quiet for a while. "May I ask what happened?" Peter whispered, almost inaudible.

Tony took another deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. Well, I know why Pepper was like that when she was at your aunt's house. She came to see me today, we talked and she- well she wasn't happy with some things and...some things were said and.. yeah.." Tony vaguely said. Then looked away from Peter as Stephen squeezed his shoulder as a sign of affection to calm him down. Tony gave him a small smile then sighed.

"But, what would she even be angry for? You haven't done anything wrong, and the company seems fine, so I doubt it was about that." Peter said thoughtfully. He was basically talking to himself, but Tony heard him.

"She got angry because I got over her, found someone else, and she didn't believe that, in hindsight she was worried I guess, it's not that a have a good track record with relationships." Tony shrugged, and continued to tinker with the Spiderman suit. Trying to ask Peter questions about the upgrade so the kid didn't make any questions about his last statement.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with banter between Peter and Tony, rambling about upgrades and arguing which AI was better, Karen or Friday, which ended in a conclusion that Jarvis was the Ultimate AI, which offended Karen. They also ended up with a perfectly upgraded suit at the end. Tony enjoyed his afternoon like no other, having Peter and Stephen with him made him feel relaxed.

Stephen sat close by and let Tony and Peter had their father-kid time. He was as quiet as possible, so he wouldn't interrupt them, but never took his concerned eyes off Tony during the entire afternoon.

Chapter Text

There was something wrong with Peter. Tony could tell.

Ever since he arrived from school to his workshop he has been acting weird. Tony is used to the room lighting up with energy and joy when his kid shows up and they rant and spend the whole afternoon throwing sassy comments or jokes. But today wasn't like that.

It was Friday afternoon, Stephen was busy doing sorcerer stuff and Tony hadn't seen Peter at all this week. Peter had cancelled their meet-up on Wednesday because he told him he had too much homework. Tony didn't think much of it. But here they were, at the lab, already working on the Iron Man suit for the past hour and Peter hadn't said one joke or had ranted about his day. When Tony talked to him he would answer normally but he wouldn't continue the conversation for long. Tony thought Peter might talk, or deal with whatever was going on with him over food, since the kid's weak spot was any type of sugary candy or carbohydrates.

"Hey kid, we have been working for a while, do you want to take a break and get something to eat?" Tony asked, putting his tools down and wiping his dirty hands on his pants.

"Sure." Peter replied.

They headed upstairs to the kitchen where they found Bucky, Steve and Natasha. Peter greeted them with less enthusiasm than usual and got some leftover pizza and sat at the counter next to the avengers that were there. Tony kept his distance and observed how Peter was acting.

He saw Peter with a blank look on his face, as if he was thinking, trying to solve a dilemma with himself or something. Then a few seconds later Peter's mood changed and he started a conversation with the three, but he was still acting too odd.

"Bucky, you travelled a lot during the war right?" Peter asked, taking a bite off his pizza.

"Yeah, travelled to the front in Germany, wasn't all great but I did get to see a lot of the landscape." Bucky replied.

"Huh... I see." Peter said. "Did you miss your home?"

"Sort of, I missed home, but mostly because of Steve and my sister." Bucky said with a sad smiled as he remembered his sister was most likely dead by now. "Why are you asking?"

"Nothing." He replied. "Just curious I guess..."

Bucky eyed him suspiciously for a second but didn't say anything, Steve was next to Bucky looking at his boyfriends with a sort of 'what's up with Peter?' look.

As Tony was analysing the scene, he didn't see as Natasha approached him. And before he knew it she was dragging him away from the kitchen.

"Need to speak to you. Private."

"What is it, Natasha?" Tony asked annoyed.

She stopped when they were far enough from the kitchen and stared at Tony as if she was trying to crack a code. "What was that?"

"Huh?"

"Peter, why is he acting all weird?" She demanded.

Tony shrugged. "Kid's been acting weird since he arrived. I'm trying to figure out what happened. No clue so far."

Natasha stepped away from Tony and relaxed her spy pose she was in, no longer pulling her intimidating interrogation face. "Tell me when you find out what happened." She said, then started walking away.

Tony returned to the kitchen to find Peter almost finishing his pizza slices and Steve retelling a story from his youth.

"Hey, spiderling, ready to finish the suit?"

"Yes, Tony" Peter said between bites, standing up from the chair and walking towards Tony so they could head to the lab. "Bye Bucky, bye Steve." He whispered.

They entered the lab and Peter started picking up the tools to work on the suit, but he was stopped by Tony's question.

"What's going on with you, Pete? You have been acting weird all afternoon. I know something is up. So, what is it? Did you have a bad day at school? Is a kid giving you trouble?" Tony looked at him worried.

"No, nothing like that. It's just- it's nothing." Peter looked away and tried to focus on the table.

"No, not happening kid. Can't avoid this conversation. Now, tell me what's going on? What's gotten you so down?"

"I'm leaving."

_______

It was Wednesday afternoon and Peter had just returned from school to his house. He had just cancelled on Tony because of the amount of homework he had. He was even cancelling going out to patrol tonight.

When he arrived, he saw May was home. Which was odd to say the least. At that time she would usually be working. Peter walked towards May's room where she was talking on the phone, but he stopped as he started listening to the conversation.

"I know, but I can't accept. Peter's life is here- I know, yes." May was quiet for a second listening to the person on the phone talk. "Yes, I know it's the position I've been looking for since I started working, Pepper, but I can't accept." She was quiet again. "No, I won't even tell him. It will just-" May stopped talking as he noticed Peter standing in front of her room. "I'll call you back, Pep." She hanged up. "Peter, hi sweetie. I thought you were at Tony's."

"I had too much homework, May." Peter walked inside the room. "Now what's the promotion I hear you got?" Peter gave her a smile.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm not taking the offer Peter so..." May said.

Peter sat down on the bed next to her. "Why? I thought promotions were good." He said sarcastically. "What? Not paying enough for a promotion? Crappy boss?”

"No Peter, nothing like that. The pay is double to what I am currently getting, and the boss is great."

"So?"

"It's in Washington. It's all the way across the country and you have your school here and I can't change your life to bring you to another state."

Peter was quiet for a second. He did love his life here, but he knew what this meant for May, and after everything that has happened, after Ben she deserves something nice. "You should take the offer." Peter decided.

"Honey, I can't ask you that. Moving all the way there. I can't take the offer."

"You did that for me, you changed everything in your life when you took me in, gave me everything I needed and were there for me. You and Ben. So yes, you can ask me to change my lifestyle, to move, because that would make you happy, wouldn't it?" Peter said softly.

"Peter..."

"Take the job. I can finish school there then I can go to college somewhere else. It's only a year and a half. I think I can deal with that."

May was teary now, and engulfed Peter in a hug. "What did I do to deserve such a wonderful nephew. I larb you, Peter."

Peter hugged her back, saying nothing. He really didn't want to go, leave Ned, MJ, the avengers or Tony behind. But seeing May happy was going to be worth it.

_____

"You are what?!" Tony screeched.

"I'm moving to Washington." Peter mumbled.

Tony was expecting everything but this. "What? Why? How?"

"May, she- uh, got a job promotion, and it's her dream job and they will pay her double and she deserves it, so I have to go with her."

Tony had a bazillion question running through his mind. Why hadn't the kid told him? "When are you leaving?"

"In one week. May's new boss is trying to relocate her as soon as possible." Peter's voice was shaky. "Already said goodbye to Ned and MJ. I'm taking next week off to pack up the apartment, already talked to the school and everything."

Tony took a deep breath. "One week!?! When were you going to tell me? Where you even going to tell me? Or the others? Or just wait ‘till you were over in Washington, chilling on your new room?"

"Yes, I was going to.. probably before I went. I- I think it would have made it easier." Peter had teary eyes, barely noticeable but he smiled nonetheless. "Sorry." He shrugged nervously.

"Peter, you can't just tell us that last minute. I don't know if I-" Tony stopped himself and looked at Peter, who he just noticed was more tense than usual. "Pete, do you even want to go?" He asked softly.

Peter shook his head forcefully as tears escaped his eyes. “I don’t want to go”

"Oh, Underoos. Come here." Tony said as he gave Peter a hug. Peter immediately hugged back and hid his face on Tony's chest trying to hide his tears. "I don't want to leave my home, or my friends I don't want to leave the avengers, I don't wanna leave you."

"I can try to talk to your aunt about not going-"

"No! She has changed everything when she took me in. I can't let her be miserable by making her not take her dream offer. I told her to go, I told her to accept it." Peter said, words barely audible as he was sniffling and had his head in Tony's chest.

______

After Peter had gone to sleep at midnight after talking to Tony and spending the afternoon at the compound Tony was sitting in his room looking at the wall. He didn't know what to do. He had just found out his kid was leaving to the other side of the country in a week, where he would have no protection and the worst was the kid didn't even want to go. That broke Tony's heart.

He didn't know what to do.

He needed to talk to someone.

He got his phone out and dialled.

The phone was answered. "Tony? What's the matter? It's one in the morning. Everything okay?" Stephen asked over the phone. Stephen had been spending a lot of time with Tony at the compound, so he had to leave now and then to take care of his sorcerer supreme duties. Today was one of those days he had to show up at the sanctum, and he was supposed to be returning on Sunday for a while. So, he was definitely not expecting Tony to call him at 1am on a Friday night.

Tony mentally cursed himself, telling himself he was an idiot for calling this late. "Everything is fi-" he gulped. "No, it's not." He let out a breath.

"Tony? What happened?" Stephen became incredibly worried. "You know what, I'll be right there."

Stephen portaled himself to Tony's room immediately. He saw Tony was sitting in his bed looking distressed. He walked up to him and put his arms around Tony. "What's wrong?"

Ever since Tony had finally opened up about his feelings the other week, Stephen and Tony had talked about it, and officially got together, well, they were giving whatever they had a shot and see where it lead. Stephen on his part was glad Tony had found out, he had been pining on him for a while, even though Stephen had no hopes of them being a thing at first but that changed. They hadn't told anyone yet, but Peter and Wong knew, and Rhodey, who Tony a hug when he found out, then proceeded on yelling at him for taking too long.

"I just don't know what do to." Tony said. Tony then explained the situation to Stephen, telling him all the details about it and how Peter didn't want to go and how he didn't know what to do to help him.

"You will find a way to help him, Tony. You always find out how to help everyone. Don't worry. But you are a mess right now. And you need to sleep. So why don't we go to bed, and you can think of a solution tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, Gandalf."

_____

Next morning Tony had an idea. A bad one, but an idea nonetheless. He was going to do exactly what Peter told him not to. He was going to talk to May.

He texted May and asked her if she could meet him for coffee. She accepted and now Tony was heading to the coffee place to meet her.

Once she arrived they both sat down and ordered a coffee each. Tony ordered two espressos and May a black coffee with sugar.

"So, I heard about your job! Congratulations!" Tony said trying to sound gleeful.

"Thank you." May said uncertain.

"Not happy about the promotion?”

"I am, just nervous..."

"You'll be fine, it’s just nerves from the new job." Tony told her, giving her a reassuring smile.  

"Thanks. It's not the job I'm nervous about. I'm worried about Peter." May took a sip of her coffee.

"Oh." Tony paused thinking about his next words. "Well, I did want to talk to you about that now that you mention it - about Peter."

"I don't know what to do with him, Tony. He is encouraging me extremely to go, for us to go, but I can see that he is not happy about it." May let her head fall on one of her hands for a moment. "And it's not like I can back out from the job now. Once I accepted it there is no going back."

"Yeah, I talked to him yesterday, he is not taking it well, but he is happy for you, May. But don't tell him I told you or I will never hear the end of it." Tony said. "Can't he stay with someone? One of his friends? With Ted? Ned? Whatever the kid's name is."

"No, because I would be gone for too long and since he is a minor he needs to stay with his legal guardian." May groaned. "It’s just for a year or so though, maybe it will work out and with the extra money I'll have I can probably send him a couple times a year to visit you here." May pondered.

"Don't worry about the expenses, May. I can help with that. If you want, I can fly Peter in every weekend. That way he won’t miss it here much. Whatever you need I can help you and Underoos."

May smiled. "Thanks, Tony. I appreciate it.." She took another sip of her coffee, and Tony of his'.

They stayed there in silence for a few minutes enjoying their coffee when May suddenly broke the silence. "I think I have a solution for Peter."

"What is it?" Tony asked.

"He can stay with you. I mean think about it, he could stay at the compound and still attend school and see his friends. He won’t have to move all across the country." May looked at Tony, waiting for a reaction.

"What?" Tony wasn't processing the words. "I- I can't take him! Even though I would love to, I am not a responsible adult to take care of a child,"

"He is sixteen Tony, not a child. And you are already taking care of him, you are a responsible adult, at least with Peter. He has literally been living there half the time these last two months and he even has his own room."

"May-" Tony started his refusal but May didn't let him.

"If I didn't think Peter would be absolutely safe with you I wouldn't even have mentioned it. I trust you. Even though I did hate you at first, you have proven to be responsible and caring about him."

"May, I don't think the kid would want to leave you. Plus, I am not even his legal guardian, so it wouldn't work."

______

Peter woke up quite late, around noon. He was supposed to wake up early to hang out with Tony and then he would have the afternoon to spend with Loki and tell him he was leaving but Friday never woke him up and now it was one in the afternoon.

He was in his pyjamas, walking to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Would it even be considered breakfast at this point? He shrugged to himself and got some cold waffles he found on the fridge.

"Peter, boss wants you to go to the conference room as soon as you can." Friday said over the speakers.

"What for? Is it an emergency? Should I change? I'm in my pyjamas, Fri."

"Boss says you can arrive in those clothes, it's not an emergency."

"Okay. Thanks, Fri."

Peter walked into the conference room of the compound with a plate of waffles in his hand. After all, if it wasn't an emergency, surely he could bring his breakfast along right?

He walked into what he least expected. Tony and May sitting next to the table, waiting for him.

"Hey, spiderling, sleep well?" Tony said, giving him a smile.

"May?" Peter was confused. Why was May here? He quickly thought of the only possible solution. Tony must have talked to her about yesterday. Peter was getting slightly annoyed at his mentor. "What the hell is this?”

"Hi, sweetie, we just want to talk to you for a second. You can sit down."

Peter grudgingly sat down.

"Tony and I were talking earlier, about you and my new job." May started but was cut off by Peter.

"I told you not to tell her about our conversation, Mr Stark." Peter clenched his jaw, not looking at Tony, feeling betrayed.

Tony was taken back by the sudden change of name. "She brought the subject up first Pete. Just listen to us, okay?" He said pleadingly.

Peter nodded but didn't look at his mentor or aunt.

"You see, sweetie, I know you don't want to go to Washington. You don't want to leave your life here, I get that. And you might not have to." May took Peter's hand and squeezed it slightly.

"But you want to go there, and you love that job! So, we have to go. I can't stay here on my own. So, we both go or we both stay. Isn't that how it works?" Peter countered, looking at May.

"No honey, I was thinking.. how would you feel if Tony became one of your legal guardians?"

"What?" Peter questioned.

Tony scratched his goatee nervously. "Well, that way you could stay with me, with us at the compound and still go to your school and see your friends. May could go to her dream job. That is of course, if you would want to live with me and have me as your legal guardian."

Peter couldn't think of what to say. "But May-"

"It was my idea, Peter. Don't worry about me. Do you want to stay?"

"I- I have to think about this." Peter stood up and left the room. There was too much going on and he couldn't handle this amount of things at once.

"Peter!" Tony and May yelled after him, but he didn't listen.

Peter didn't want to be with either of the adults at the moment, he had too much to think about. He needed somewhere to escape for a while. He could go out on patrol, but Tony would track him down. So, he ran to the lower floor, knocking on one of the doors until it was opened.

Loki opened the door. "Hey, Peter." Loki said cheerfully, but when he looked at the teen standing there looking distressed he frowned. "What happened?"

"Can I come in?" Peter asked timidly.

"Of course." Loki took Peter by the shoulder and guided him inside, sitting him down on the bed. "Tell me what's going on, Peter."

Peter took a deep breath. "So, I told Tony I was leaving yesterday and I didn't want to and I told him to not tell May, but he did and now they were both talking to me and telling me I could stay if Tony took guardianship of me and May told him to, so Tony probably doesn't want to take care of some kid and I don't know what to do so I ran and came here." Peter ranted face-planting himself into the bed.  

Loki was confused by half of the teen's statements. "What do you mean you are leaving?"

"Oh right, I haven't told you yet. I was going to tell you when I got intercepted by them." Peter took a deep breath. "So, May got a job in Washington, which is literally across the country and I have to go with her."

"Oh." Loki said. "I will not question you why you didn't tell me about this before because I can see you are not well at the moment, but from what you told me, Stark would love to have you here full time. It doesn't matter if May told him to, he would gladly accept, he did accept, that's why he told you in the first place. You are overthinking this, Peter. So, go talk to him before this ends in a mess and you have to leave."

"He probably thinks I hate him now or something and I don't even know where he is." Peter mumbled.

"I wouldn't say he hates you, never would think of it." Tony said, he was standing in front of Loki's door, which Loki had left open and now was glad he did.

Peter looked up and went towards Tony. As he got up he looked at Loki and mouthed a 'thank you' then hugged Tony. "Sorry for leaving earlier"

"It's all good, kid. Let's go talk somewhere else. May is waiting at the conference room." Tony said, assuring the kid.

_______

A week later, Peter, Tony, Stephen and Loki were at the airport. None of the other avengers were there as they didn't know of the fact that May was leaving, and Peter would be staying with them, yet. The ones who were there, were helping May with her luggage and wishing her well on her job.

They had started with the legal guardian papers and would be ready by the end of the month. Peter was happy May could follow her dreams and that he could stay in New York. He will admit, he was going to miss her, but they could see each other whenever as Tony said he could provide them with a private jet if needed. They had called Peter’s school and told them that Peter would still be attending the school but would be taking part of next week off due to family issues. They hadn’t told the director or anyone about the change of legal guardianship yet. MJ and Ned would be sending him the homework throughout the week. They didn’t know what was happening either but were glad their friend wasn’t leaving.  

So, there they were, Peter giving May one last hug before she walked through the airport doors. Peter was going see her again soon, but not as soon as he wanted. May couldn't take any of the next month off, especially the next two weeks, as it was orientation weeks, and things were going to get rather busy after that, then the next two weeks after Peter was going to be in finals, making it hard for him to visit her.

But May was going to visit them for a week when Peter would be done with finals. So Peter wasn't too sad. It wasn't as if he wasn't going to see her again, it would only be one month.

Loki and Stephen said their goodbyes, though rather awkwardly, as the two hadn't spoken much to May and they were only there to support Peter.

Before May left, she took Tony aside to talk to him. He was wearing a hoodie and sunglasses, so no one would recognise him, but people still stared. "Tony," May began, "thank you so much for doing this, for staying with Peter."

"It's the least I could do. Plus, I love having Peter around. He is a great kid." Tony grinned, looking at May. "I'm still processing that you think I'm responsible enough to handle your kid." He half joked.

May stared at him. "Of course you are. I wouldn't even consider getting a joint guardianship if I had any doubts, I told you. You will do great."

"Thank you, May. I'm honoured you think that." He said. "And remember, anything you need, you have my phone number. Just call and whatever you need, you will get."

"Of course. It's not every day I have the Tony Stark’s private phone number." She joked, earning a snort from the man. "But seriously, I can't thank you enough."

"Don't thank me then, just enjoy your new job. And go give Peter another hug because he is looking over here like a sad puppy. Probably wondering what we are talking about."

May laughed and nodded. They both headed back to where Peter, Loki and Stephen were, hugging Peter two more times.

"Take care, sweetie, and be easy on Tony, alright?"

"Yes, May. Call me when you get there. I larb you. " Peter said.

"That's my boy, I larb you too." May kissed Peter on the forehead, then proceeded to take her luggage and walked inside, leaving the rest.

Peter felt both sad and happy as he watched his aunt go. He felt someone grabbing his shoulders and he looked up, finding Tony behind him.

"C’mon kid, let’s get you settled into your new home, shall we?"

Chapter Text

Hey guys, so im so sorry but i wont be uploading a chapter this week, life has been hell and with a very bad writers block caused by anxiety mixed with depression and stress, i couldnt finish the chapter i was planning. 

i did see all of the amazing comments from this week and honestly its been the best, definite highlight of my week. thank you all so much for the awesome comments. 

So i literally had 3 essays, 5 english homeworks, 7 tests last week and SATs today, (IT WAS 5 FUCKING HOURS LONG) my brain is not functioning to type coherently so there is no way i will finish a chapter soon. And another apology because from now to dec 15 ish the schedule might not be a new chapter each week, i have finals in two weeks and idk how i will manage. Nevertheless, i will do my best to at least get you a new chapter by next weekend (or before if my brain cooperates). But since the teachers crammed up the entire semester's work in these few weeks i dont make any promises in updates and again, i am truly sorry. 

Chapter Text

Peter arrived at the compound with Tony after leaving May at the airport. It felt weird for Peter, even though he had been in the compound too many times, today it just felt different, as if it was a different place. Technically it was. This was his new home now after all and he was definitely not used to that.

Since last week he had been moving things to the compound from May's apartment. Things like his clothes and important items but he was still missing some things from the apartment. He already had a bed, a desk and mostly anything he could need.

The avengers knew nothing of the new living arrangement because Peter didn't want to tell them just yet, he was just so busy with everything he had to do with May leaving. He hadn't even told MJ and Ned that he was moving in with Tony. Shuri, Loki and Stephen were the only ones who knew. Stephen knew because Tony had told him, and Loki had told Shuri before he realised he wasn't supposed to say anything yet.

Peter walked into his lab to find Thor and Bruce talking in there.

"Hey, guys." Peter said looking puzzled as to why they were there. He wanted to be alone for a while to process that he was really living there now.

"Peter! We finally found you. We were looking for you throughout the compound but then Bruce was telling me that you probably were at your aunt's house." Thor beamed, giving Peter a one armed hug.

"Uh, no, I’m not staying with May for a while, so tell me, why were you looking for me?"

"It was actually Bruce. He wanted to ask you something." Thor said.

"Yeah, just wanted to see if you could check something I was working on. Some calculations seem to have failed and Tony is always bragging about you and your genius spider brain." Bruce explained, passing a tablet with the information. "Thought I could give it a go."

Peter took the tablet from Bruce. "He brags about me?" He said mostly to himself. "You know what never mind, let's take a look at this."  Peter read over the file looking at the calculations. "This equation seems to be off, I think you missed the number sign there." He pointed out.

Bruce looked over, rereading the mistake. "Oh my, seems you are right." He looked at Peter. "Thank you, Peter. You really are a genius." He changed the calculations and put the tablet in one of the tables. "So, Peter, why is it that you are not going to your aunt's for a while?"

"Huh?"

"You said earlier that you weren't going to be staying with her for a while, how so?"

Well here goes nothing . "She left for Washington so I'm staying here for a while. But please don't mention it to anyone yet." Peter told them.

"You are living here?" Thor said. "That's magnificent news! My brother will be pleased to hear that."

"He already knows actually, told him last week." Peter shrugged.

"Of course he knows." Thor said looking defeated. Bruce laughed at his boyfriend.

_______

Peter decided to tell everyone about his new living arrangement. He talked to Tony earlier and Tony smiled at him. "Whenever you are ready." He told his kid.

So now Peter was sitting at dinner with the entire avengers, which was something they did every other Saturday, a type of family dinner with the whole team. Everyone was there, except Clint of course who was still with his kids. So, Peter became a little nervous, he didn't know exactly about what he was nervous about, he just was.

"Before we continue eating, Spiderling wants to announce something." Tony called out for everyone's attention. He was sitting next to Stephen, who was looking at him lovingly as he spoke. No one had found out yet about their relationship so most of the people present were completely oblivious.

"Yeah, uh I just wanted to let you all know that I am moving here for a while. Technically I moved in today because my aunt ended up moving to Washington and Tony offered to take legal custody of me. But long story short just wanted to let you know you will be seeing me more often. Well anyway I guess you can continue eating." Peter stopped talking and started to eat without making eye contact.

"What?" Rhodey spoke first. "Tony took custody of you and I get to find out with everyone else? When did this happen?" He was shocked.

"It was only planned since last week, everything was last minute and not many people knew. Sorry, Rhodey, I forgot to tell you." Tony winced, he had forgotten to tell Rhodey and will probably not hear the end of it.

"Huh, well congratulations, kid." Rhodey told Peter.

"Thanks, Rhodey." Peter smiled.

"Wait, what do you mean you got custody?" Steve said frowning.

"It means I'm his legal guardian, Capsicle." Tony said unamused.

"But I thought you already had custody, you know, with being his Dad and all." Steve explained.

"What." Tony tried to suppress a laugh. "Oh." It dawned him that some of the avengers here still thought Peter was his actual kid.

Rhodey started laughing so hard his laugh was silent. "Oh my god you still think-" he was cut off with more laughter.

Stephen scoffed giving half a smile. "You actually think Tony is his dad I suppose."

"Yes- wait, he isn't?" Bucky looked at Tony then at Peter a couple of times. "But they are identical with the science things."

"And he was literally introduced to us as your kid. Tony, care to explain?"

"Thought it would be fun." Tony shrugged. "You all thought he was my kid and I didn't correct it. Just wanted to see how long it took you to find out."

"So, you just called yourself his dad?" Bucky asked. "What does Peter think about it?"

Tony looked over at Peter, he hadn't asked Peter what he thought about it, he had forgotten. "Well..."

"Oh, c'mon Peter calls him dad too, he is fine with it." Stephen pointed out.

"He has a point. But I gotta say, it took you guys long enough, it's hilarious." Natasha said, looking at Steve and Bucky.

"In our defence, we literally had fought the alien grape when we met Peter so when he was introduced as Tony's kid we just rolled with it. Too tired to question it." Steve said half-joking.

"I have to say though, since Tony appointed himself as your dad," Bucky shifted the conversation and looked at Peter. "I will now appoint myself and Stevie as your grandparents." Bucky said with a serious face.

Peter let out a laugh and before he could say anything he got interrupted by Steve.

"I agree, we are in our in our hundreds, so it works out." Steve agreed smiling at the kid, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, that's not fair." Natasha spoke up. "I now name myself as Peter's wine aunt. I'm not missing out on all of this fun." She flashed a smirk at Peter.

"Well, I should be the honorary uncle. I have spent a lot of time with Peter, we get along better." Rhodey said, getting into the conversation.

Moments later the rest of dinner was spent in a discussion of who got to be Peter's family, all saying that they are now different variations of his aunts or uncles. Peter was smiling warmly at the conversation because it made him realise how much he was cared for. He thought maybe the transition to the compound wouldn't be that bad with so many people that love him in the same place.

Tony felt happy for his kid, watching his fellow teammates arguing between who is the best uncle and joking of who would spoil him the most.

It was a fun dinner.

But it ended rather early because Peter got tired as it had been a long day, both mentally and physically. He woke up early because May left and everything else that happened today left him exhausted. So, he excused himself and went to sleep.

_____

The next morning Peter woke up without any alarms or Friday waking him up. It was one of the few days he was allowed to sleep as long as he wanted. He walked sleepily to the kitchen in his Iron Man t-shirt he used as pyjamas. Although he wasn't awake enough to notice that the usual banter between the avengers and general noise of the compound was gone. Everything was quiet, so when he walked into the kitchen he didn't expect everyone to be there with what looked like a buffet in front of them. They all greeted Peter with a good morning and a hug.

"Hello." Peter said looking around the kitchen noticing the endless amount of food. "What's going on?"

"Well, you are officially one of us, part of the team." Steve smiled.

"Which calls for a celebration." Bucky finished Steve's sentence.

"And well, we thought what better way to celebrate our Spiderkid than a giant breakfast full of sugary food to last the whole day." Tony said, picking up a piece of bacon and eating it.

"I- I don't even know what to say." Peter was in awe. "Thank you so much." He said truthfully, hugging Tony tightly and then quickly hugging the rest.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Steve didn't mostly cook all of this just so it can get cold." Natasha smiled at Peter before starting to serve herself a piece of everything.

There were three different kinds of pancakes, waffles and hotcakes, accompanied by maple syrup, chocolate syrup and strawberry syrup. There were also muffins, eggs, toast and marshmallows and next to it was a giant plate full of bacon, enough for two entire teams of avengers.

Peter having the super metabolism he has due to the spider bite, ate two entire plates with a little bit of everything, getting extra waffles because there are never enough waffles. Everyone laughed at the insane amount of food Steve and Peter could eat so they started making bets on who would eat the most waffles, and Peter ended up winning. Truth be told he was full halfway through, but he ate more out of spite.

Meanwhile all the bet excitement was happening, Tony was resting his head on Stephen’s shoulder, looking lovingly at his kid eating the waffles getting chocolate syrup on his nose. Stephen had an arm around Tony the whole time. No one noticed, and if they did, no one said a thing.

_________

Peter went to his room after breakfast to try and sleep some more, after all, eating that much amount of waffles can make anyone tired. But not even ten minutes later Loki knocked on his door before immediately letting himself in. "Get ready, Peter."

"What for? It's Sunday."

"The rest wants to help you settle in the compound, so they offered to help unpack and help with everything. They told me to tell you to get into some comfortable clothes."

"Oh, that's really nice of them." Peter's chest filled with warmth. "I'll be there in a second." He had already packed half his stuff and he had a bed and desk and all here. So, he just needed to get some last-minute things he forgot at his old apartment and he was done. Now he was thrilled that the avengers were helping him, he really didn't want to do all the work alone.

__

The avengers had helped Peter pack the last boxes he had at the apartment and had moved them back to the compound. Happy had helped too. It was his day off, but he couldn't resist. Now they were helping Peter unpack his Star Wars and Lego collections into his new shelves. Tony was overseeing the process helping now and then. Loki was actually helping for once and cleared the dust off of some of Peter's belongings and Steve, Bucky and Sam were following Peter's instructions on where his merch shelves should go. The Star Wars posters needed to be next to his book shelf, so it could be next to his Lego Star Wars ship and other stuff. Everything was going well until Peter suddenly screamed out of fear and jumped so high he somehow ended up in the ceiling.

"Peter, what happened?" Tony ran to where Peter was.

"Spider." Peter said, his eyes wide open without blinking and looking down at one of the boxes.

"Huh?" Bucky frowned as he looked over the box, where he found a small red spider. He picked it up with his metal hand. "This is what caused you to jump?"

"Yes!" Peter said nodding quickly.

Sam started cackling. "Are you telling me-" he was interrupted by his own chuckles. "The great Spiderman is afraid of spiders?"

"They are evil, Sam. Evil ." Peter explained. "Bucky can you please get rid of that thing."

Bucky nodded and left the room.

"Spiderling, how come you never told us you are scared of spiders?" He paused. "Never mind that, if you hate spiders why did you chose Spiderman as your superhero name?"

"Because I have the abilities of a spider, you know, stick to walls, enhanced reflexes and everything in general." Peter crawled down from the ceiling as he talked.

"Aw, man, this is hilarious." Sam laughed, wiping away a tear that had formed. "What's next? Ant man afraid of ants?"

"Ant Man?" Stephen asked. "Since when is there an ant man?"

"Oh, he is that guy I fought in Germany, right?" Peter looked at Tony for an answer.

"Yes kid, I should introduce you to him sometime." Sam told Peter.

"Ant man is a superhero who was on Steve's side on the fiasco that happened two years ago, he could grow and be tiny." Tony explained Stephen, who had been waiting for a proper answer.

"Huh."

"You know..." Loki interrupted, changing the subject. "Shuri will have a field day with this information, Peter." He smiled wickedly as he disappeared to his room.

"Don't you dare Loki! Don't you even dare!" Peter yelled back running after him.

"So, I guess we are done here?" Sam said after the silence that followed Peter's and Loki's exit.

"Yeah, Pete is almost done so he can finish by himself tomorrow since he doesn’t have school until Wednesday. Thank you for helping out." Tony looked at everyone present and gave them a smile, before exiting the room with Stephen, the taller man putting an arm around Tony before leaving to get some leftovers from the breakfast.

The avengers immediately stopped being the oblivious humans they were, and realised Stephen and Tony were together.

"You all owe me money." Bruce told Sam, Steve, and Bucky. "I told you Tony and Stephen were a thing."

The three handed Bruce ten dollars each while Rhodey laughed.

Chapter Text

On Tuesday morning, Peter woke up to wonderful news. He woke up quite early, not bothering on changing into his avenger pyjamas. Then he walked outside of his room to find Tony in the living room, talking on the phone.

At first Peter ignored the call and guessed it's probably from work or something avengers related, until he realised that Tony was smiling. Tony never smiled when he had to make a phone call, especially work related. He always looked tired and rolling his eyes at the things he was being told. But not this time. He had a smile on his face and was paying attention to the call. Peter stood there in the hallway observing his mentor.

"Yes I will. I told you, any problems you have you can take it to my lawyers. And if any of this leaks to the media you will be out of a job, I'm serious." Tony was quiet for a second. Peter wondered what it was about, because if lawyers were involved it was probably some problem, so it didn't explain why Tony was smiling. "That is wonderful news then. Thank you. Well, now that everything is settled without any problems I better get going." Tony finished his call and hung up. Only then realising Peter was there. "Oh, hi, Pete." He grinned.

"Hi, Tony, what was that about? What got you so happy?"

"They were telling me I now officially have legal custody of you. The papers were finalised this morning."

"Really?" Peter asked. "That is great, I didn't know that could put you in such a great mood though."

"Are you kidding? I have custody of my kid now, why wouldn't I be happy?" Tony ruffled Peter's hair on his way to get his cup of coffee that was on the table near Peter.

Peter was smiling at Tony's comment. He really thought of him as his kid. And now in a way he technically was, not like Peter didn't see Tony as a father figure before but now it made it more real.

"Now, what plans do you have for today? Will you be with Loki? Or with Steve and the rest? Or do you want to tinker in the lab? I have a few ideas for my Iron Man suit and you might be able to help me with it." Tony asked.

"Actually I was thinking of visiting Ned today around three if it was possible. Since I'm returning to school tomorrow after my break I wanted to catch up with him and MJ. Besides, I could get his notes to catch up. But that is till the afternoon so we can go to your lab for a while." Peter smiled enthusiastically.

"Sure kid, you can go with Ned just don't be back late, it's a school night." Tony said. "Now let me tell you about the updates..."

_______

Tony and Peter worked on the suit for a few hours before Peter went to take a shower and got ready to leave. Tony had offered to give him a ride but he said he had already called Happy and he was waiting downstairs.

After Peter left Tony was left working on his suit as he didn't have the energy to socialise with the team that day. It wasn't that he didn't like them, he just didn't have the energy to deal with Loki today. Usually he was used to it but Steve, Bucky and Sam left to get some food and Natasha, Rhodey and Bruce were busy, and he really didn't want to deal with Loki stabbing Thor or something. He just wanted some relax time.

That was when Stephen called Tony.
"Hello, Tony."

"Hey, Gandalf, everything okay? We don't usually call." Tony said concerned.

"Do not worry, everything is fine. I was just wondering if you are busy. I finished at Kamar Taj early today and thought we could go get dinner."

"Dinner sounds perfect, you could come over and we could order something fancy. I don't feel like changing into fancy clothes."

"I'll be there in around ten minutes." Stephen said before he hung up.

Tony then left his lab to change into some comfortable and clean clothes, before Stephen arrived. He put on some sweat pants and a tank top and ordered some food. Stephen opened a portal to Tony's penthouse a few minutes later and he was no longer in his sorcerer robes but in normal comfortable clothes.

They set up a table and started eating, being quiet at first as they were both hungry and when they were halfway done they started talking.

_______

Tony laughed so hard he flung his head backwards in laughter. "Did Wong really tell you that?"

"Yes." Stephen said. "That for a genius I was really a dumbass. Then he hit me with a book before he went to listen to Beyonce."

"Well that is what you get for not asking me out before. Apparently you took too long that your friend noticed and got annoyed about it." Tony said, taking a bite out of his meal. "But to be fair, Rhodey was also done with us. Even Peter told me that Rhodey and Wong used to meet up to complain about our obliviousness."

Stephen snorted. "Are you serious?" The corner of his mouth lifted.

"Yeah. I even confirmed it with Rhodey." Tony said amused. "Rhodey said Wong has been dealing with that since after the battle on Titan."

"Nah, I wasn't that obvious." Stephen said, as he got his dessert ready. "Wong is just being a little shit."

"Apparently you were." Tony was enjoying this. He had no idea Stephen liked him since then, which got him thinking. "And how come you apparently liked me after Titan? We barely had met. What was it? Did I look that good while fighting?" Tony said jokingly.

"Oh yes, that was exactly why." Stephen answered sarcastically, lips twitching into a smile as he closed in on Tony and gave him a peck on his lips.

"But seriously, why since Titan? I was an ass half of the time and then we almost died. And again, we barely met, we just fought the grape half the time."  

"You were not an ass, you were dragged into space and the guardians weren't helping much so it is understandable why you looked like you hated everyone." Stephen said. "And it might have seemed like we barely met, but I knew you longer than the few days we were on space. I saw 14 million 605 different futures, that is a hell of a lot of time to know someone."

"Wow. So my boyfriend knows me 14 million times more than I know him. Good to know." Tony stated. "I feel like now I need to know more odd facts about you to be even."

"Is that so?" Stephen said. Tony nodded. "Well then, ask away."

"Favourite hobby?"

"Don't have one at the moment but I did love music back when I was a surgeon. I would have music challenges while operating. I always knew the song." Stephen said.

"Favourite accessory to wear?" Tony asked. "And the weird stone necklace doesn't count."

"It's the eye of Agamotto, Tony, it's not just a necklace, it literally holds an infinity stone." Stephen looked unamused. "And watches would be my answer, I used to have a lot of them, before my accident. Then I sold them to get more money for the surgeries." Stephen wasn't the one to talk about his past, but he figured he owed that to Tony, he was right. Stephen knew more about Tony than Tony of him.

"That must have hurt like hell." Tony said after a while. "All those surgeries..."

"The pain was bad at the time, but after getting impaled in the chest by two giant rock spears, the hand pain seems tolerable." Stephen shrugged getting the last piece of dessert.

"What do you mean? When the fuck did you get impaled by that?" Tony's eyes widened.

"Well, a short time after I became a sorcerer, I fought Dormammu. He is from another dimension called the dark dimension, and a few followers of his were drawing power from there and it was chaos. So I went to the dimension and won."

"How did you survive?"

"Easy, time loop. Each time I died the loop would reset. I made him give up by annoying him to death. Not going to lie, the first hundred times the pain was unbearable, he kept finding new ways to kill me but after a few times it lasted less." Stephen explained, only realising now how bad that sounded.

"You what now? Time loop?"

"Yup. Restarts when I die, or when I decide to stop it. Like in Titan."

"So you actually live the multiple futures?" Tony asked, voice getting colder.

"Yes."

"But I thought you saw the outcomes like a movie or something, not actually live it." Tony did not like this one bit. "Wait... does that mean on Titan... you died all those times?"

"Most of them." Stephen answered. "I would usually die first, the worst times were when I was the last one standing."

"Stephen..." Tony said softly. "You are  an idiot, a selfless idiot. Fourteen million futures? You died all those times! Don't even get me started -"

________

Peter was dropped off by Happy at Ned's house in the afternoon. Ned was thrilled to see his friend after a week of radio silence from Peter's part. Ned welcomed him in and immediately after they entered Ned's room Peter saw MJ was there too.

"MJ! I didn't know you were here. It's nice to see you both." Peter greeted his friend before sitting on the bed. "I am sorry, guys, I barely called you these past few days, things have been insane."

"You better start explaining because all of a sudden you were leaving the state with your aunt and now you aren't leaving but then you disappear for a week. So what is going on, loser?" MJ looked at Peter, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah man, don't keep us in the dark."

"Okay okay, I'll tell you. So, long story short, May did leave to Washington on Saturday and as you can see I didn't go with her." Peter started fidgeting with his hands as he spoke. "I am currently staying at the compound with Tony who took legal guardianship of me officially as of this morning so I could finish school here and continue my spiderman duties. Well, he probably didn't do it for the latter as he is always freaking out when I go on patrol. But I just realised that wasn't important to this story."

MJ and Ned listened closely to the explanation. Ned had his mouth wide open and grinning and MJ had her mouth open. The news had surprised her.

"Dude! That is so cool!"

"Are you telling me Tony Stark is now your dad?" MJ raised her eyebrows.

"No, not really he just has legal custody of me but he isn't my dad. He didn't adopt me or anything." Peter rambled nervously.

"Whatever you say dude, but Tony is like your dad now."

"Yeah and I am not letting it die down." MJ said jokingly.

"Guys, I am pretty sure you are kidding but you can't tell anyone. This is secret and it will stay that way. So, Ned, you cannot talk about this at school when I get back." Peter warned. "Which reminds me —" Peter turned to MJ. "—I need to borrow your notes for class, please."

"This is the last time I’m saving your ass, loser." MJ said warmly, getting her notes out and passing them to Peter. "And don't worry we won’t say anything."

"I am your guy in the chair, you can count on me too."

"Thank you guys. And now that explanations are over, I really need to tell you what happened the other day during patrol..."

______

Peter arrived home after spending the afternoon with Ned and MJ. Happy picked him up and took him to the compound. When he entered, the avengers were already back home and were in the kitchen deciding what to eat, making Steve and Bucky cook.

Tony walked in, looking between a mixture of annoyance and worry, barely noticeable. Peter noticed anyway. He saw Tony wasn't with Strange as he usually was at this usual time.

"Hey, Tony."

"Hey, kid." Tony smiled at him. "Had fun at Ted's?"

"It's Ned, Tony, you are just messing with me at this point." Peter laughed as he shook his head. "And yes it was fun, and I was able to catch up on my class work. What about you? I thought you would be with Stephen or something.”

“I was, I am. He is somewhere around the compound.” Tony answered. “Now, would you want to have some dinner or did you eat at Ned’s?”

“I ate at Ned’s but I am starving. What’s for dinner?”

“I have no clue, Capsickle and Bucky were about to cook.”

“We were thinking of making some orange chicken and pasta.” Bucky answered.

“That sounds delicious!” Peter exclaimed.

“Peter is right,” Natasha spoke, looking at Tony. “You are always with the wizard, you could say it is... strange that he is not here. Where is he?”

“Stephen is dead.” Tony shrugged, well knowing Stephen was around, but was still not over the fact he had died many times and he hadn’t told him.

“What?!” Half the avengers exclaimed and looked at Tony with wide eyes.

“Ah, for god’s sake Tony, stop telling people I’m dead.” Stephen entered the room with his cloak.

“I wouldn’t do that if you would stop dying.” Tony said half-annoyed.

“Can someone explain what is happening?” Peter asked in a high pitched voice.

“Tony is being Tony, nothing to worry about.”

Everyone looked at Tony for an answer. He was not about to tell Stephen’s story or secrets so he faked a smile. “I’m just messing with you all, you should have seen your faces.”

“Of course it was a joke, is this payback for all the pranks I did with Shuri? Because if it is, it wasn’t that good dad- uh Tony.” Peter said quickly trying to cover his mistake. Being around Ned and MJ saying Tony is his dad got to him.

Tony smiled. “I’ll step up my game next time then, son .” Tony put emphasis on that word so it would get to Peter.

Peter turned red and changed the subject. “So are we getting food or not? Because I am starving.”

Chapter Text

Peter was in gym class, it was the last class before he could go home, Ned and MJ were with him. They were supposed to be doing laps, but Director Morita walked in and demanded everyone to sit down at the benches for an important announcement. Everyone sat down. Peter, MJ and Ned exchanged confused glances.

Director Morita cleared his throat and addressed the crowd of teens. "Thank you all for coming here, I must apologise to your gym teacher for making you all skip class, but I just got news of an exciting thing. As you all know, the end of the year is approaching, and finals are just around the corner, but we still have a week left before you lot start studying, so we have decided to squeeze in a field trip. We have been trying to keep this news on the dark in case we were not permitted to go, but it is confirmed, on Thursday we will be going to the one and only Avengers Compound upstate."

Ned and MJ let out a laugh as they looked at Peter. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Dad- Tony hasn't said anything about this. He probably didn't know. I'm sure Pepper had something to do with this and just forgot to mention it." Peter whispered at them.

"But didn't Pepper and Mr Stark broke up?" MJ asked.

"Shhhh." Peter hushed. "It's still not out yet, and yes they did. But Pepper is still CEO."

"Mr. Parker, if you could be quiet for a second that would be marvellous." Director Morita stared at Peter.

"Sorry sir."

"As I was saying." Director Morita said. "The avengers' Compound is divided into two sections, the living area of the Avengers and Tony Stark, and there is another section of the compound in a separate building which is where interns and people work. Although I'm sure you lot would love to see how they work we are only heading to the avengers section. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity—" Mr Morita kept explaining all the details of the trip but Peter spaced out half way through. He was only thinking of how to not make any of the avengers embarrass him. He hadn't even thought about Flash yet.

________

"Loki? Are you in there?" Peter knocked on Loki's door right after he was home from school.

"Come in, Peter."

Peter walked in and saw Loki reading a book and a Loki illusion watching the tv. If he was honest he didn't know which one the real Loki was. "Hi Loki." He looked at both Lokis.

The Loki reading the book disappeared and Loki paused the TV. "How are you? Did you finally get bored with school and decided to help me stab Thor?"

"For the last time, Loki, no I will not help you stab Thor." Peter said. "Unless you help me disappear on Thursday." he said jokingly.

"Deal." Loki smirked. "Wait, why that specific day?"

"Apparently my class is doing a field trip here. And it will be bad, the avengers and Tony will probably embarrass me if they find out, which they will. And it's basically a field trip to my house, it's weird and my classmates-" Peter shut his eyes and groaned. "Oh no, and Flash is going to be there too. I don't want to deal with that idiot in my house. And then I will have to go to school in the morning just to come back here just so I can go back to the school so Happy can come pick me up. It will be hell, Lokes. Hell!" Peter rambled.

"Easy there, you are speaking too fast even for me." Loki sat down on the bed. "Why are you worried about the Flash guy? I thought that puny mortal left you alone?"

"Uhh sure." Peter said unconvincingly. "But never mind that, no one believes me I have an internship with Tony. Which I don't blame them, but Flash will make a big deal of this, I just know it."

Loki had too many questions he wanted to ask about the Flash situation, but he figured that could wait. "Listen, it seems no matter what they will find out you live with Tony, or at least that you know him, am I correct?"

Peter nodded.

"Well, we might as well have fun with it right?" Loki smiled wickedly.

_____

After Peter spoke to Loki he felt better, he was no longer worried about Thursday thanks to the god. They had planned a few things that would make everything better, and since Loki was going to be around he could ignore Flash being Flash.

He walked up to Tony's lab to say hi to him, but he found the lab empty. "Friday, where is Tony?"

"He is at the conference room." Friday answered.

"Thanks Fri." Peter walked up to the conference room where he saw the avengers were in a meeting. They were speaking to what appeared to be a hologram of Everett Ross. Peter knew about him because Shuri had told him about Ross. He wondered what was happening.

Apparently the meeting was ending, and Tony walked out as soon as he saw Peter. "Hi Pete! How was school?"

"As usual." Peter shrugged. "What was that about? I didn't know there was an avengers meeting today."

"No need to worry about that, some last-minute things." Tony said, hiding away his worries.

"Okay." Peter said sceptically. "Anyway, I will be having a field trip on Thursday, and-"

"Where to?"

"Here."

"What now?" Tony said.

"Yeah, they told us today, we are going to my home for a field trip." Peter said annoyed.

"Why didn't I know about this? Friday, did I receive any news of this?" Tony asked.

"Pepper sent you a message with the field trip information but you were in a meeting sir."

"Well, that was unexpected." Tony stated.

"Please don't embarrass me." Peter pleaded.

"No promises." Tony ruffled Peter's hair.

"Daaad!" Peter groaned. He started calling him that every now and then.

"Peeeter." Tony answered back smiling.

"Well at least Loki will help me." Peter mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing."

______

It was Thursday, the day of the field trip, and Peter didn't want to go. It wasn't because of the actual field trip, he was actually looking forward to it thanks to Loki, but he didn't want Happy to drive all the way to school just so he returned shortly after. Peter tried convincing Tony to stay there but that didn't work.

All the avengers knew about the field trip and had given mischievous glances to each other when they found out, Peter did not like that one bit. He pleaded to them to act normal which most of them agreed after a lot of convincing and bribing (with food), so he would only have to deal with Tony being purposely embarrassing. Loki had promised Peter he would be there since the morning, which meant getting up early and Loki hated that. Peter appreciated the gesture greatly.

Peter arrived at school to find his class waiting outside the school. They were waiting for everyone to arrive before getting inside the bus. He saw Ned and MJ waiting for him, so he walked up to them.

"Hey guys."

"Dude I am so hyped for this, I barely slept last night." Ned grinned.

"We have literally been there you loser." MJ said rolling her eyes but giving a ghost of a smile.

"It is still the avengers compound MJ it is exciting every time."

"Not for me, I live there and it's weird going with my school to tour my house."

"That must suck dude."

"It does." Peter agreed.

"Penis!" Flash yelled as he made his way to the trio.

"What do you want Eugene?" MJ glared at him.

"I thought you wouldn't come, you are probably scared they find out your lies, Parker. Tony Stark doesn't accept internships from teens, I applied and got denied. Besides, Tony Stark wouldn't waste time on you."

Peter looked at him in the eye uninterested. "Sure thing." He turned around to Ned and MJ, ignoring Flash.

"You know we are going to the avengers compound right? Not the interns section. So how will you prove it is a lie if we aren't going to meet the interns." MJ smirked and showed him the middle finger.

"You will see, Penis, I will tell everyone about the lies!"

"You do you." Peter didn't even look back at Flash which made him angry and walked away.

MJ and Ned were staring at Peter.

"What?"

"Since when do you talk back to that asshole?"

"Loki helped." He answered ominously.

The director started to call the students to get in the bus, the trio went inside and sat at the end of the bus so there was space for the three of them. And with their luck Flash sat I'm front of them and Director Morita sat three seats in front.

The ride was going well, Peter was talking to Ned and MJ and Flash hadn't been an ass yet.

"Do you think Thor will be there?" Ned asked.

"Sure, I mean he has no reason not to be and Bruce would have said something if he wasn't."

"Sweet." Ned grinned.

"So, you never told us, did Pepper ended up arranging the whole thing?"

"Yes, Tony did not have a clue of anything, Pepper texted me apologising for not telling me sooner."

Flash heard the last part and his anger exploded. "Stop it! We have heard enough that you work for Stark Industries, and now you are talking like you actually know them, especially Pepper Potts, she wouldn't know you, she is too busy planning a wedding and running a company. Stop it! You are pathetic."

Peter should ignore him again, but it was too early in the morning for wise decisions. "I know them, and what you believe is your problem now can you just shut up before I regret not telling Tony not to invite you?"

Mr Morita sighed and looked at Peter. "Peter, you are a great student, but you need to stop with the lies, it has been two years. You are almost a grown up you should stop with the internship rumours."

Peter rolled his eyes and looked out the window, he should have kept quiet. He became more eager to meet Loki for their plan.

They arrived at the doors of one of the buildings, which was the biggest one and the avengers' home. The teacher instructed that the students made a line and waited for instructions.

Happy appeared moments after with some type of ID cards on his hand. "Hello children, welcome to the Compound. My name is Happy Hogan and I will be attending you until someone comes to give you the tour. We will be handing out cards you must wear at all times or you will be kicked out of the premises. It is scanned by levels; the top level is ten. Level one is what you lot will have, meaning, you won’t have access until someone with clearance gives you permission."

Peter was confused, he literally lives there and has never in his life heard about the Card system, he just walks in. Ned and MJ also gave Peter confused looks.

Some kid raised his hand. "What Level card does the avengers have?"

"The avengers and people close to the avengers don't use the cards, they have unlimited access and can walk freely. It would be annoying to card access everywhere in your own home wouldn’t it?" Happy answered. "Now come on, get your cards." Happy handed out cards for everyone but Peter. But everyone was too busy to notice.

The students walked inside the building registering their ID cards as Friday welcomed them. He welcomed a few and the trio and Flash were the last ones.

"Thompson, Eugene. Level one." Friday announced. "Jones. Michelle. Level seven. Leeds, Ned. Level eight. Welcome"

The class looked at them weirdly as they walked in. Peter walked in after without a card.

"Welcome Peter." Friday announced.

"Hey Fri." He whispered so he didn't attract attention.

"Why doesn't Pen- Peter have a card?" Flash yelled, making everyone turn around.

"Because he doesn't need one, he has full access to everything I thought I explained myself with the Card system clearly but apparently I did not." Happy huffed. "Now let's keep moving or we will be late."

Peter gave Happy a thankful smile as they walked. He was looking for Loki, who was supposed to be there. They were met by Rhodey, who was in his military outfit and gave Peter a wink when he saw him. Peter was doomed, he didn't know Rhodey would be there too.

"Hello, kids, hi Hap. I guess I am giving you a tour of this old place. I am Colonel James Rhodes. You may call me Colonel James Rhodes. Follow me."

Peter walked up to the front and slowly places himself near Rhodey. "Did Tony put you up for this?"

Rhodey laughed. "Nah, I had a day off, what better way to use it than to annoy my favourite nephew."

"Why am I not surprised." Peter said. "Hey, have you seen Lokes?"

"No kid."

"Peter, stop annoying Colonel James and return to the group." Mr Morita said.

"It's fine, I'm not annoyed by Pete." Rhodey looked at Peter. "But if you have to go back, return to the group kid."

"See you later, Rhodey." Peter walked next to MJ and Ned getting glances after calling him Rhodey.

"Our first stop is the training room." Rhodey showed the way to where Wanda and Natasha were training.

Everyone gasped when they saw the avengers.

"This is where the avengers train daily for their missions."

Peter snorted. "Daily? They are lazier than cats. They have trained a couple of times only, since I've been here." He whispered to Ned and MJ.

"Stop being so disrespectful Parker." Mr Morita hushed them as Rhodey talked.

Peter was quiet, and annoyed. He didn't understand how Morita still couldn't see he wasn't lying. This was going to be a long day if Loki didn't appear soon.

"Hello." Natasha stopped sparring and turned to the students. "I'm Natasha, this is Wanda, as you probably know already. Any of you have any questions?"

"Favourite fighting move?" MJ spoke up.

"Hi, MJ." Nat greeted her. "Wrap your enemy's neck with your legs and make them fall down, then it's your choice to snap their necks or not."

"Cool." MJ smiled.

Director Morita was visibly uncomfortable with them talking about murder.

"How do you know MJ?" Flash asked loudly.

"Because she is cool." Nat shrugged. She recognised Flash and didn't like him. She looked around for Ned and Peter. "Hi, Pete, hi, Ned."

Peter and Ned waved. Peter was happy, since the Black Widow knew him Mr Morita would finally stop being an ass to him. He turned around to look for his director and saw him typing on his phone, he realised he wasn't paying attention.

"Now I'm sure you would like to meet the rest of the team. And I guess we will continue giving the tour as Rhodey has disappeared." Wanda said as she started walking out of the room. No one followed her as they were still in awe. "Well? What are you waiting for? We don't have all day."

______

They were all in the elevator, which was big enough for the class. And they were heading to the living room.

"Next is the living room. This is where some of the avengers spend their free time most of the time."

"Will we be seeing Tony Stark?" Flash asked with a smirk. He still couldn't believe Peter has met the avengers, but he didn't believe he met Tony.

"Maybe. He is usually not around at this time. Usually Steve, Bucky and Sam are here the most often."

The elevators opened and revealed Steve, Bucky and Vision. Wanda went to greet Vision and wrapped an arm around his waist. Natasha walked up to Steve and Bucky. "Hey fossils, I brought you some kids so you can say hi. Be nice, they are Peter's classmates."

Steve nodded and straighten up, putting his Captain America persona. "Welcome, I wasn't expecting you to be so many." Steve faked smile, he really wanted to stop socialising and watch a movie with Bucky. "How is school treating you?" Steve received murmurs of different answers, but he didn't bother to try and listen to them. "So, I have no idea how tours around here work. Do you ask questions? Do we show you around?"

"I got this Stevie." Bucky laughed. "Quick tour, this is the living room as you can see, we watch movies with the team and spend our time here or in the kitchen. You will be visiting some labs later if Tony lets you and that is about it." Bucky was standing up purposely looking intimidating with his metal arm, he was having fun with the kids' reactions of him.

"Any questions to ask Mr Captain America? Or erm, the Winter Soldier?" Mr Morita timidly said.

"Weren't you a criminal?"

"That got sorted out." Steve said, smiling awkwardly.

"Why the beard?"

"Because it makes us match." Bucky said sarcastically.

Peter laughed at Bucky's answer, which drew him attention. Bucky and Steve saw him and smiled, turning their public facade into their usual selves.

"Peter!" Bucky said warmly, still with his serious expression. "Come here."

Peter walked to the front. There was no point in not saying hi, as the class might as well already figured his internship was real. Even though it wasn't. "Hi Bucky, hi Steve." He smiled as Bucky gave him a side hug and Steve a full hug.

"How is the trip going? Too boring?" Bucky asked raising an eyebrow as he looked at the crowd, who were all staring with wide eyes. All except MJ and Ned of course.

"Nah, we are only starting so the training room and here are the only places we have visited so far, I'm not bored yet. What about you two?"

"We were going to watch a movie when they appeared. You forgot to tell us they were coming today."

"I told you yesterday." Peter shook his head fondly. "Well you better say something to them before they explode, you have really big fans here."

"Fine. Who wants a picture?" Bucky and Steve said. All the hands were raised up while holding their phones.

While Steve, Bucky and Natasha were taking pictures with the class. Wanda and Vision left, and Peter was talking to Ned. Meanwhile, Flash was being bitter about Peter and complaining to his friends.

"How the fuck does Penis Parker know them? And know them well? Even if his internship was real, interns don't meet the avengers, much less act like that around them. I'm not convinced." Flash groaned.

"Listen, I hate to admit it but how else would you explain it? They do seem to know him." One of Flash's friends said.

"Whatever." Flash scoffed.

"Okay people listen up, I just talked to some of the team and we will be visiting Bruce Banner's lab where you will get to meet the rest of the avengers, and if Tony shows up we might be able to go to his lab. Who knows." Steve announced.

"Now make a line and head for the elevator. Because of security protocols, elevators to the labs need to have small groups, so make groups of four and wait for further instructions."

They started moving the class to Bruce's lab, making Steve ride in the elevator with the first two groups, then Natasha went with the third group and Bucky went with Peter, Ned and MJ who were last.

Peter asked Bucky if he had seen Loki, and apparently no one had seen him today. The rest of the elevator ride passed with MJ and Bucky talking.

Once in Bruce's lab, the class dispersed to look around. Shortly after, Thor and Sam showed up, so most of the avengers were there. The class took turns speaking to each one of them, especially Thor. Since everyone was busy, Peter decided to excuse himself from the place and head with Ned and MJ to his lab. They had already gone there a few times, but Peter wanted to show them the improvement he had been doing with his web shooters and try to find Loki. His friends asked what the big deal was about finding Loki and Peter shrugged, telling them he had plans.

They stayed at the lab for a few minutes and headed back, he didn't want to get in trouble again. As it appeared Morita disliked him.

When they were about to enter Bruce's lab again they spotted Tony and Stephen walking to the elevator, probably to go to Tony's floor.

"Hey, Tony, hi Stephen!" Peter called.

"Peter? What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Stephen asked.

"Nope. We had a field trip here and my class is with Bruce in his lab."

"Is today Thursday? I thought it was Wednesday." Tony said. "Sorry kid, I forgot. If I had remembered I would have been around since morning."

"It's all good." Peter smiled. "But where were you?"

"Hong Kong. Stephen was showing me the sanctum there. You would like it. We should take you there sometime."

"Cool! And they can teach me magic!" Peter exclaimed.

"No!" Stephen and Tony said. They laughed at their immediate reaction.

"You are no fun."

"I already have someone close to me risking their life for the magic stuff, I'm not having that be two." Tony said.

"But magic!" Peter said dramatically, obviously exaggerating.

"You are going to make me go grey kid if you start doing magic, I got enough to worry about with your spiderling duties."

"You are already grey." Peter deadpanned.

Tony opened his mouth to say something but was in awe at the witty response.

"There really is two of you." Stephen looked at Tony lovingly.

"Shut up." Tony rolled his eyes hiding a smile. Then ruffled Peter's head as he usually did.

"Stop it." He laughed.

"Is that Tony Stark?"  Someone said.

They turned around and saw Peter's class peeking from the lab.

"The one and only." Tony said, making his way to the lab. "I see you have met the avengers... having fun?"

Everyone nodded enthusiastically.

"Alright, I can show you a part of my lab then you get some lunch, then questions, but no one can touch anything, or they will be removed off premises."


______

At the lab Tony showed some of his older projects. He would often meet Peter's eyes and smile before he continued explaining and showing off. The avengers were in the background with Stephen, quietly watching the class.

None of the class noticed as they were too busy looking at Tony. So, Flash didn't notice the avengers glaring at him when he decided to pick on Peter when Tony wasn't looking. Peter would of course ignore it and move but Flash wouldn't stop.

They spent around an hour there, before Mr Morita announced it was time for lunch and the group headed upstairs so they could eat what they brought.

The trio sat down away from the rest, so they could talk without people eavesdropping when Flash casually walked and sat next to them. "Okay, Penis, I guess you weren't lying about the internship. But how did you make them pretend they liked you? An internship shouldn't be supposed to interact with them." He scowled.

"Because I am Tony's personal intern, I tend to spend it around him, therefore the rest of the avengers. And I didn't make them do anything, they just like me." Peter said.

"Too bad I don't believe you, I know you didn't give them money, you don't have any and Tony doesn't need money. Did they take you as a charity case?"

"Hey Pete! Come here for a second." Bucky yelled across the room. Steve and Natasha standing next to him.

Peter didn't bother answering Flash and headed towards Bucky. "What?"

"Is that kid bothering you?" He switched his warm gaze in which he was looking at Peter to stone cold glaring as he focused his eyes on Flash. Flash noticed and looked away.

"N-no?" Peter said unconvincingly. "Listen, it's fine don't worry."

"No, you listen, as your self-proclaimed grandfathers, we will kick his ass if you tell us. He shouldn't be bothering you." Steve said.

"I don't like him. He is being bothering you since earlier, I don't like when they do that to my nephew." Natasha said as she showed a hidden knife she had.

"Nat where did you even- I don't even care. Please just let it go. And don't tell dad. He would probably yeet him out of a window if he found out." Peter pleaded.

"Yeet?" Steve said.

"It's gen z humour for throwing something." Bucky explained. "I've been catching up on culture after your pranks." He told Peter after the look on Pete's face.

"Hello everyone." Someone who looked just like Peter yelled as he walked into the room.

Everyone froze as they realised that wasn't Peter. They looked rapidly between Peter and Not Peter to try to figure out what was happening. The avengers of course knew it was Loki, so they ignored it, but the Director and class were puzzled. Everyone was waiting for the real Peter to freak out that there was a clone in front of him, but Peter just waved at the non-Peter as he went to talk to him.

They started speaking in whispers, so no one would understand, leaving everyone in suspense.

"You took too long. Not cool." Peter frowned. "Where were you?"

"Sorry." Loki shrugged. "I fell asleep."

"Peter what is going on?" Mr Morita demanded.

Peter ignored him and grinned. Looking at Loki. "You ready?"

Loki nodded. "Abso-fucking-lutely."

"Hey Thor! Come here." One of the Peters said.

"No!" The other Peter said. No one knew which was the real one anymore. "Stop it." He said to the other him.

Then before anyone could process what was happening they got in what appeared to be a fight. And then Loki transformed into himself, revealing who was the real Peter and (carefully) threw Peter to the ground. None of the avengers moved, knowing better than to intervene between the two, as they realised it must be a prank. All except Thor, who went to help.

As Thor walked up towards Peter. Loki helped Peter up, with an arm around his shoulders and smiled. "Get help! Help." And threw Peter to Thor.

Peter landed near Thor, rolling on the floor before getting up. Thor walked to Peter when Peter turned around and stabbed him with a (fake) knife. Obviously not doing any harm.

Everyone was in shock that Peter stabbed a god and gasped audibly. Thor laughed. "Typical Loki moves."

"DID PENIS PARKER JUST STABBED THE THOR?" Flash shouted. He turned to the other avengers. "And you want him to intern for you?" He laughed "I mean, I knew he was an idiot, but he stabbed one of you guys, isn't that against protocol? I could be a better option for an intern." He rambled.

Flash didn't realise the avengers froze in their spot and murder glared at him when he started talking, slowly turning their heads at him. Even Loki, who was in the middle of stabbing Thor with an actual knife stopped. Loki locked eyes with Flash and did a knife cutting a throat gesture and he snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Stephen was thinking of sending him into a void. "Listen you dipshit-" he started but was cut off by Tony.

"What. Did. You. Just. Say?" Tony hissed. His tone was so scary and ice cold the other students shrunk in their places.

"I could intern instead of him." Flash continued. "I-I wouldn't stab anyone. I am fit for the position."

As that was happening, Mr Morita sensed he should probably get the rest of the class away and ushered them to the other room. All the class but MJ, Ned, Peter and Flash left. Mr Morita stayed in the room too, even though he wanted to leave.

"Did you just call him Penis Parker?" Bucky pointed at Flash with his metal arm, making him look more intimidating.

"N-no??" Flash realised he fucked up.

"Don't lie to me." Steve said in his Captain America angry voice. "I don't like bullies." He looked down on him.

"You seem like a disgrace to Midgardians." Thor spoke up.

Bruce held Thor's hand and squeezed it before he let go. Then he looked at Flash. "You better apologise before I make the green dude come out. You wouldn't like that would you?" Bruce threatened. The avengers knew hulk wouldn't come out because of the problems they had since the Thanos fight, but they were shocked Bruce threatened someone, that was new.

Flash looked at Peter with fear in his eyes. "I- I'm sorry pen- Peter."

Before Peter could say something Tony spoke up. "Loki, no." Tony was looking behind Flash. The rest turned around to see Loki with a sword ready to strike.

"Loki!" Peter exclaimed. "No! We don't kill humans remember? Put that down." He said panicked.

"But he deserved it." Loki said with hate in every word. "I already let him go last time."

"As much as I would like to support Loki at the moment I can't because of moral principles. But I am not totally against it..." Tony said, still looking at Flash.  "But Pete is right, you can't kill him."

"Fine." He took out a blue with black cube out of nowhere and froze Flash. Everyone started yelling at him. "What? I didn't kill him." He rolled his eyes. "Ugh. You are no fun." He groaned and unfroze him.

Flash looked terrified. Stephen wasn't going to admit it, but he was glad the kid looked so scared. Everyone got so fond of Peter they all became very protective of their new addition to their family.

"Tony I think he got it, that is enough." Peter said, looking between Flash and his mentor.

"I am not done." He said, voice still cold. He put an arm around Flash. "I know you want to apply for big colleges. Is that right?" His voice completely changed.

Flash nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Well, if you ever bully my son or anyone else, you will be working at McDonalds your whole life. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir."

"Good. Now off you go. Wait in the bus, you aren't welcomed here." Tony said, his voice was fake friendly, like the type of voice he used at interviews.

"I can portal him back home." Stephen said.

"No, Love, there is no need to." Tony said as Flash rapidly walked outside.

Peter started panicking now, he just processed what happened and realised he was probably in a lot of trouble with the school, after all what happened to Flash was because of him. He should have tried to stop Tony before. And Tony had called him his son in front of him and Mr Morita, who was watching everything from a corner. He really hoped the class didn't hear.

"Mr Morita was it?" Tony turned around to face the Director.

"Yes sir."

"Will you please accompany Steve to the conference room with your class, get everyone settled. I will be there in a couple of minutes."

Mr Morita nodded. "Come on you three you heard Mr Stark." He told MJ, Ned and Peter, who were the only students left in the room.

"Pete can stay." Tony said.

MJ and Ned nodded and followed their Director and Steve.

The avengers turned to look at Peter.
"I'm sorry." Peter looked down.

"Kid, why are you sorry?" Bucky asked.

"Because... of what just happened.."

"Listen, it wasn't your fault, that kid was an ass and he shouldn't have called you that." Natasha said.

"But you went all avengers mode. You probably scared him to death."

"As Nat said, he deserved it. And we didn't kill him. He is fine." Loki tried to assure Peter.

"Loki you almost stabbed him with a sword." Peter began.

"I wasn't going to stab him." Loki said in self-defence and Peter just stared at him. "Stabbing is usually reserved for people I like. Like Thor for example. Now this mewling quim... he deserved decapitation."

"Loki that's worse!" Peter panicked.

"Listen spiderling, this wasn't your fault, we are not mad at you so don't apologise." Tony assured Peter giving him a side hug. "But don't try to empathise with the jerk. He has been bullying you and you don't deserve that, and he paid for the consequences." Tony started walking to the door, still side hugging Peter. "Now let's go finish this trip so you and I can have a movie night with pizza?"

"Okay."

_________

Everyone was at the conference room waiting for instructions, when Tony, Peter and the other avengers walked in. Everyone stared at them, lowkey looking for Flash, who was last seen with them. When the students didn't saw him, they started murmuring amongst each other.

"Quiet." Tony said as he walked towards the front, silence met his demands. "Now, you all have questions, and are wondering where the ass- your classmate is. He has been excused from the compound for breaking rules." He had his sunglasses on, as he did when dealing with crowds. "Now, I suppose after the mishap that just happened I should answer some questions."

All hands went up and Tony picked one, it was one of Flash's friends. "What rules did Flash broke?"

"He insulted Pete. That just about breaks everyone's patience. You people are guests here and making fun of someone dear to us, instantly makes you disrespect us. Which breaks the house rules.” Tony explained calmly.

"And how come Peter stabbed one of you and is still there?"

Pete and Loki shared a quiet laugh at their prank.

"Pete is as if he was part of our team, he is part of this weird family here at the compound. Everyone cares about him dearly and we have become used to Peter's pranks around here."

One girl raised her hand. "Yes?" Tony pointed at her.

"W-was Peter's friend really going to stab Flash?" She asked stuttering. "We kind of overheard that part of the conversation." She mumbled.

Peter looked at Loki. "If you get in trouble that is on you." He whispered.  In return, Loki shrugged.

"Loki? No, he was just kidding. You know the Gen z humour you kids have nowadays." Tony lied.

"Loki? As in the one from the chaos in New York?" One kid asked. Murmurs erupted.

"Yes, but my brother has changed." Thor chimed in trying to calm everyone down, it was not working.

"Shut up!" Peter yelled. Everyone stopped and stared at their classmate. "This is Loki, he is not going to kill anyone. You might think you know him because of what he did in New York all those years ago, you might think he is evil. But you know nothing. It wasn't his doing." Peter paused. "You know the aliens who showed up about a month and a half ago? They are to blame, they made him do that. Now you will not be scared or talk about him badly." He ordered. "I-I may just be Peter Parker, some kid from queens but he is my friend and I will defend him." Peter finished his speech. "Plus, Tony is right, Loki knows about memes and vines, he knows our humour and was indeed joking."

Everyone was quiet, some of shock that Peter spoke like that, others were quiet because of the information.

"And, we would greatly appreciate if you didn't talk about my brother to other people, as you see, my brother is a sensitive topic in this planet."

Steve, who knew how to manage crowds to like him, spoke up. "What do you kids say? Want to help out the avengers? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity."

The class enthusiastically nodded, they were helping the avengers and it was exciting for them.

"That is the spirit." Steve said as he went giving high fives to everyone.

"And, as a generous gift, and a farewell gift for you all, I am giving everyone, this year's Stark Phones, just barely out in the market." Tony told them earning cheers from everyone.

And just like that, the Director and the students forgot the fiasco that had happened earlier and finished the tour with their new phones. Tony decided to let them visit the other section of the place, where the interns where, so they could look around. He barely went there at all so everyone was in shock to see him there. Nevertheless, they had a good time and by three in the afternoon everyone was back on the bus. Peter stayed there, as Tony had convinced Mr Morita to let him stay, at first he was adamant to let a student of his stay without confirmation of a guardian, but then Tony told him about the living arrangements with Peter and made him sign an NDA before they left.

Peter watched as his class left the area, everyone but Flash laughing and smiling.

Then Peter returned to his family for some pizza night and a Star Wars marathon.

He knew the next day at school would be busy with questions, but he could manage that. Besides, it was only one day and then the weekend with Tony's birthday coming up. He would be fine. He was fine.

Chapter Text

Next day, Peter woke up and was reluctant to get out of bed. He didn’t want to go to school after the trip yesterday. It almost ended in a disaster, but Tony ended up saving the day with his new phones for everyone. Either way, he was sure he was going to get a lot of questions because now it was official that he indeed knew the avengers.

He groaned and pulled up his covers until Friday threatened to call Tony or Loki, who would make him get up with whatever measures that would be necessary.

After he got ready and ate his breakfast Happy picked him up and took him to school. He was so nervous he didn’t rant to Happy and just spent his time on his phone. Happy curiously glanced at him a couple of times but said nothing.

Once he arrived at school he went to his locker, which was next to Ned’s. Ned was standing there not doing much.

“Hey Ned, did you finish the essay due for today?”

Ned was acting weird. “Of course, Pete, all done. Although it took me a while because I was obsessing over the avengers yesterday, you know how it is.”

Peter stared at his friend for a few seconds. “You are not Ned, are you? Huh, Loki?”

“Yes, what gave it away?” Loki said, still disguised as Ned. “I thought my impression was good.”

“I know my best friend, and for a god you do a very shitty job at acting.” Peter laughed.

“I do not! I played Odin for two years and no one thought my impression was shitty, they didn’t even notice.” Loki said indignantly.

“Whatever.” Peter hid a laugh. “Why are you even transforming into Ned in the first place?”

“Some concerned people sent me to make sure no one bothers you today. But for obvious reasons I have to go undercover.”

“Loki, you can’t transform into my best friend, what are you going to tell him when he shows up and sees himself?”

“Well-“

In that moment Ned walked in and saw someone that looked like him talking to Peter. He froze for a second before walking to Peter. “Dude, listen to me, that is not me.”

“I know.” Peter said. “That's Loki and I was just telling him how he can’t do that.”

“Loki?” Ned turned to him. “Hi, Loki! Your impression of me looks really good.”

“See, Peter? Someone does appreciate this.” Loki smiled triumphantly. “Thank you, Ned.”

“Loki you have to change because people will start looking.”

“Fine.” He transformed himself into MJ. “Is this better? I’m not your best friend anymore.”

“No. Change.”

“Rude.” Loki said as he transformed into a random kid with greasy black hair.

“Awesome!” Ned whisper-shouted.

“And who are you supposed to be?” Peter laughed.

“I dunno, isn’t there that thing where someone is transferred from another place?”

“An exchange student? You are an exchange student?” Peter could not believe this.

Loki nodded. “Yes, now stop talking. Don’t you two have a class to go to?”

____

The first four classes were surprisingly uneventful. No one talked about what happened at the trip and everyone had their StarkPhones at hand. All except Flash, who glared at Peter a couple of times. No one questioned the exchange student and Loki spent the classes sleeping, clearly bored.

At lunch, they sat with MJ, who was not amused by the stunt Loki did, and just read one of her books while casually making a few comments.

“I can’t believe it.” Peter said.

“What?”

“I thought I was going to get killed by questions and no one has even come near me. I thought, based on the time Loki showed up, that they wouldn’t leave me alone.” Peter explained. “But I am not complaining, I just hope it lasts.”

“Yeah, you have to thank your dad for that.” MJ said looking up from her book.

“What?” Peter questioned, frowning.

Loki looked at her and slowly shook his head. Peter didn’t notice, and MJ ignored him.

“Yeah, your dad, Tony Stark? He sent a text to everyone with the new StarkPhone from yesterday and basically threatened them to take the phones away and get them suspended if they bothered you.” MJ went back to reading her book.

“Oh my god.” Peter said in shock.

“Yeah, but the whole point was that you didn’t find out, so you didn’t stress over it.” Loki sighed.

“You knew about this?” Ned and Peter asked at the same time.

“Who do you think sent me?” Loki got some fries from Ned and looked at Peter. “If his plan didn’t work, he wanted someone to make sure no one bothered you. So here I am. I wouldn’t be in this filthy Midgardian place if it was for fun.”

“Dude, your dad is awesome.” Ned was in awe, looking excitedly at his friend. Peter had given up about correcting his friends for calling Tony his dad, so he just rolled his eyes. “I mean, thee freaking Iron Man did all of that for you. The dad thing totally suits him.” Ned explained.

Peter awkwardly smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.” He changed the subject. “Anyway, you guys are coming to the compound this weekend, right? We need to have everything ready for Saturday.”

MJ and Ned nodded. “Yes man, don’t worry we are helping out.” Ned said.

“Saturday?” Loki asked.

“Yup. I told you Loki! We are making Tony a surprise party for his birthday.”

“Isn’t that on Tuesday?”

“Yes, but we are celebrating it on the weekend because I have school on his actual birthday.”

“Oh, right.”

“Yeah, Steve, Bucky and Nat are going to be in charge of the food. Thor and Bruce are in charge of liquor and drinks. Sam and Wanda are getting the decorations, but we have to put them up on Sunday, so we will have to wake up early. And most importantly, Stephen and Rhodey are being the distraction so we can get everything done.” Peter went over the plan, getting various nods from the three.

“How are they going to distract him long enough?” Loki asked, clearly seeing faults to the plan.

“They are getting him out of the compound and taking him, I don’t know where, and if that fails Stephen will just make a portal Tony somewhere away from the compound.” Peter announced. “We have gone over this plan too many times. It will work out fine.” Peter said nervously.

“It’s going to go great, loser.” MJ smiled at him. “And it’s a really nice thing you are doing - planning this. From what you have told us he has had a crappy few months so he deserves something this great.”

“MJ is right. I mean, basically going to space to fight a universal alien threat and almost dying, then coming back for a smaller alien invasion just to break up with his fiancée, what an awful two months… and he will definitely love it.”

“I hope so, and I mean, it wasn’t everything bad. He found Stephen, and they are cute together. You should see them around each other, he is smiling more now.” Peter told them.

“And he has got you now, he is more relaxed because of it. And happy.” Loki chimed in.

_____

Lunch finished, and they went to their next few classes. After the school ended, MJ and Ned were left, making their way home.

“Don’t forget to come to my place by 6!” Peter yelled as they walked away. He received thumbs ups from them both.

Peter was heading to the car with Loki when he remembered he forgot a book in his locker. “Oh shit, my physics book. I have to go get it, you can go wait in the car.” He told Loki. Loki could have easily teleported himself back home, but Peter insisted he went back with him.

Loki nodded. “Don’t take too long.” He said half annoyed.

Peter walked to his locker and after he retrieved his book and closed his locker, he saw Flash and his friends were cornering him. Aw fuck. “What do you want, Flash?”

“Now, now, Penis Parker, don’t be rude. We just want to talk.” Flash said.

“No, thanks.” Peter commented. “Didn’t Tony and the avengers scare you enough? You know what they will do.”

“Listen, we just want to talk, but if you don’t cooperate, we won’t just talk.”

Peter rolled his eyes, he just wanted to go home. “Fine, I will talk, but if your gang of idiots leaves.”

“No way.”

“Well, I will just walk off then.” Peter said with fake confidence. He hoped his plan worked.

“You can try to walk away, but your puny ass is outnumbered. We could beat you up.”

Peter closed his eyes. Today wasn’t his day apparently. He opened his eyes and looked at them with a smile. “Well then see how you explain to Iron Man and the Avengers why you gave me a black eye and see how they take it.”

Flash was going to complain but agreed instead. “Fine, Penis Parker, you win.” He turned around to look at his friends. “Leave us.”

Peter sighed.

“Happy now? They left, now let’s have a chat.”

“What do you want?”

“Yesterday wasn’t good, as you may know, and my parents weren’t happy with me when they found out I got kicked out of the Avengers’ compound. But I could forget all of that happened if I got my own StarkPhone, for free, like the ones you gave the rest of the class.” Flash nagged.

“No.”

“C’mon, Stark is a rich dumbass, he could get anything. One StarkPhone less wouldn’t affect him.” Flash taunted.

“No, I don’t think Tony would give you that, and much less if he finds out you are harassing me to get you a phone.” Peter’s blood fumed at Flash calling Tony a dumbass.

“If you don’t, you and that Tony Stark will regret it.” Flash threatened.

“Is that so? You can bully me all you want but you can’t get to Tony, you do know he is a literal Avenger, a millionaire, and a genius.”

“I have something on Stark but won’t say anything if you just give me the free stuff.”

“You are bluffing.”

Before Flash could respond a third voice appeared. “Is there a problem here?” Loki asked, no longer in his student form but his actual form.

“No Loki, we were just talking.” Peter lied.

Loki glared at Flash. “Listen, I yeeted you once, I will yeet you again. Now you will stay away from Peter or next time I will yeet you out the window instead into the trash.”

Flash’s eyes were full of anger. “Yes, sir” he said through gritted teeth. He walked passed Peter as he left. “You will regret this.” He whispered.

Peter shuddered and gulped, before he saw Loki looking at him and so he gave Loki a fake smile. “Let’s go. Happy is waiting.”

Loki thought of saying something else but decided best to leave it for later.

_____

Peter and Loki arrived home and were met by Tony and Stephen.

“Hi, Dad, hi Stephen.” Peter hugged them both.

“Hi Pete, how was school?” Stephen asked.

“It went well. I spent it with MJ and Ned. And Loki.” Peter said. “Which reminds me, Ned and MJ are coming today at 6 for a movie night.”

“Glad to hear, and just make sure they don’t make a lot of mess.” Tony then looked at Loki for a report. “Did anyone mention yesterday?” He asked Loki.

“No one came near him, but Flash did talk to him at the end of school.”

“It was nothing! Really.” Peter said as he saw Tony’s eyes gone cold.

“What did he do?” Tony demanded.

“We just talked. He wanted a free StarkPhone and made some dumb threats. It was nothing.”

“He threatened you?!” Tony raised his eyebrows in exasperation.

“No! No, he said you were going to pay for it, and he had something on you, but he is just bluffing. He can’t have anything on you from yesterday, everything here is known by the public to some extent.”

“Yeah, that is true. But gosh I hate that kid.” Tony muttered.

________

MJ and Ned arrived in the late afternoon. Tony didn’t suspect a thing and thought they were just going to watch a movie.

They walked to Bruce’s lab when Tony wasn’t watching and entered. Once they entered, they saw Loki, Sam, Wanda, Natasha, Bruce, Thor, Steve and Bucky already there.

MJ and Ned greeted everyone before they got to work.

“Steve, is the food taken care of?” Peter asked.

“Yes, I cooked a few things and Natasha and Bucky helped order extra food and dessert. We are just missing the utensils and plates.”

“Okay. Okay, good.” Peter said to himself. “Sam, Wanda, the utensils and stuff were part of the decorations, did you get them?”

“We are missing a few balloons but everything else is ready.”

“Cool, cool, cool” Peter relaxed a little. “Everyone else got their part?” They all nodded. “Good, tomorrow we have to have everything up and ready in limited time. Stephen and Rhodey are taking him away from ten to twelve so we have two hours.”

“Don’t worry, Peter. We will have everything ready in time.” Bruce assured. “Now go and have fun with your friends, we have time.”

_______

“C’mon, Tony, we are going to be late.” Rhodey yelled.

“Why do we have to go?” Tony whined, too tired to leave.

“Because,” said Stephen, “Rhodey wants to try that new drink from Starbucks and it’s a limited-edition drink.”

“We can always order someone to bring it here.”

“Not the same.” Rhodey said as they got in the car.

Once they got to Starbucks, Rhodey ordered whatever drink he thought was weird, as he had no clue what to order. They didn’t think of any excuse to take Tony out, so Loki had suggested the Starbucks thing.

As they were sitting at a table with their drinks. Tony ordered a double espresso and Stephen a cappuccino. Tony’s phone rang. He saw it was Pepper and reluctantly decided to answer. “Hello.”

“Tony? You finally answered! I have been trying to talk to you for a while.” Pepper sounded relieved.

“I’ve been busy.” Tony said. “What is this about? Is there a problem with the company?”

“No, everything is okay, I just wanted to see if I could see you today? I wanted to talk to you.” Pepper asked.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea-”

“Please.”

Tony sighed. “Fine, where do you want us to meet?”

______

“Tones, I really don’t think this is a good idea, last time you talked to her it didn’t go so well.” Rhodey stated.

“She wanted to talk, I should at least hear her out. And if it ends in a fight you can tell me ‘I told you so’”. Tony shrugged. They were in the car going to the restaurant where they were meeting Pepper.

“Rhodey is right.” Stephen chimed in.

“Really? You too?” Tony mumbled.

“I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t like seeing you in distress.” Stephen put his hand on Tony’s arm.

Tony faintly smiled. “At least I got you.” He gave him a small kiss on his lips. “It is going to be fine.”

Once they arrived, they saw Pepper sitting on a two-seat table near a window. She smiled when she saw Tony. Tony walked to the table meanwhile Stephen and Rhodey sat in a different table, far enough that they couldn’t hear the conversation but close enough to see Tony’s reactions.

“Pepper.” Tony sat down across from her.

“Hello, Tony. I’m glad you finally agreed to talk to me.” Pepper smiled.

“Well, the last few times whenever I talked to you it ended in fights.” Tony mumbled.

Pepper’s face went serious. “I’m sorry about that. But this meet-up is not going to end like that.”

“How can you be so sure?” Tony asked. “You get angry at me for everything lately; angry because I am happy, or because I am in pain or saving the world. Either way it ends with you angry, and then I lash out when i shouldn't and its not fair for neither of us.” Tony croaked.

“I am not going to lie, we had a few misunderstandings, but I am not going to fight, quite the opposite I wanted to apologise.”

“Wait, what?”

“I shouldn’t have gotten angry at you for saving the world yet again. I was worried... And I shouldn’t have gotten angry that you found someone else. So, I will make it right.” Pepper paused. “I am happy that you found someone, it suits you. You and Stephen, you’re a nice couple.” Pepper tried to smile.

“Pep.” Tony said softly.

“Even if I barely see you anymore, I can tell you are more relaxed... happier than we were.” Pepper looked at Tony with a loving smile. “You know, when I saw you today, you looked so much rested that usual,” she gave a laugh, “even your bags under your eyes have diminished.” Pepper was smiling but getting a little teary. “My point is that I am sorry of how I treated you and we both deserved better than each other. You found your match, and I wanted to personally congratulate you.”

Tony was speechless. “Pep, I-I don’t know what to say.” He whispered. “I’m sorry”

Pepper took his hand and squeezed it. She smiled. “I also wanted to give you a birthday present. I have a business trip tomorrow until Friday, so I wanted to congratulate you on your birthday before I left.” She took out a box and gave it to him.

Tony opened it and smiled, a mixture of warmth and sadness filled him. “Thank you, Pep.”

“Yeah, well, you keep that. And you better formally present to me that Doctor of yours next time.” She laughed. “Well, I have to go finish some paperwork.”

They both stood up, Tony gave her a friendly kiss on her cheek. “Bye, Pepper.”

“Bye, Tony. See you around.” She smiled as she left the place.

Rhodey and Stephen immediately walked up to Tony.

“What happened?” Rhodey asked.

“We apologised, we are good now. She, uh, she told me she was happy about me and Stephen.”

Tony continued telling them the latest events as they walked in the park. He was holding Stephen’s hand as they walked.

The conversation between the three changed into many things and they laughed as they told funny stories and jokes. Tony gave Stephen various heart eyes when he spoke and gave him a small peck on his lips when they were getting into the car to head back to the compound. They usually weren’t as affectionate in public because they wanted to keep their relationship private for a while, but Tony was having a good day and didn’t give a shit. No one saw them, as the park was mostly empty and they were wearing their usual hoodies and sunglasses, so they wouldn’t get recognised.

They got back to the compound and Tony jumped with surprise as he walked into a living room full of avengers, kids and food.

“SURPRISE!” 

Chapter Text

Tony chuckled. "Wha- what is this." He looked around amazed. Everyone was there, the avengers, Peter, Shuri, Loki, Happy and T'Challa.

Peter spoke up. "It's a birthday party, a surprise birthday party I mean." He smiled sheepishly. "I hope you like it. I know your birthday is on Tuesday but seeing I have school that day we decided to celebrate a bit early."

"And that way you would suspect it less." Stephen said, who was standing behind him.

Tony smiled widely. "Thanks, Pete." He walked up to him and engulfed him in a bone-crushing hug. "I love it." He turned to Stephen. "So you and Rhodey were the distraction I suppose."

"Correct." Rhodey said. "You really think I like the weird Starbucks pastel color drinks? That shit are weird."

Tony barked out a laugh. "Should have known."

"You are old. Happy birthday, old man." Clint said.

Tony turned around and saw Clint was standing near the door, probably just arriving. Laura was next to him, carrying Nathaniel who had grown since the last time Tony saw him. Lila and Coop were there too, awkwardly looking around.

"Well, hello there, Clint! It's nice to see you decided to show your face again." Tony teased. "Hello, Laura. It's really nice to see you again."

"Likewise, happy birthday, Tony." She said, giving him a small card. It had kid's drawings all over it and a note from Clint and Laura. "The kids decided they wanted to help decorate it." She laughed.

“Thank you.”

"Well, let's start this party. There is food over here, liquor on the upper counter so it is away from kid's reach. And Friday is playing music, chosen from Tony's Favourite songs." Steve announced, opening a couple of beers and passing them to Tony and the rest.

"This is amazing, thank you guys." Tony gratefully said. "How did you make a playlist of my favourite songs? I usually don’t play them around you guys."

"Peter and Shuri helped. They accessed Fridays mainframe and looked for the music you play the most at the workshop, which was rock music so they made it from there."  Stephen told him.

"How long have you been planning this?" Tony said amazed.

"Us? A few days." Sam told him. "But Pete here planned most of the thing, starting a while ago."

Tony couldn't be more thankful for Pete. He really loved having his kid around.

The party started, Peter spent it with Shuri and Loki mostly. They were occasionally near Tony to spend it with him for a few minutes but didn’t stay long because Peter wanted Tony to socialise with the rest. Plus, Peter needed to finish his gift for Tony.

When Tony and the rest of the adults started to talk, Peter, Shuri and Loki sneaked out of the room unnoticed and headed to Peter's lab. There, he was making a compilation video for Tony. It started with a short video of the avengers wishing him a happy birthday, along with Happy, May and the guardians of the galaxy. It took him a while to get hold of the latter but it was worth it. After the birthday wishes the video skipped to a compilation of videos from the last two months, of the pranks that Peter did on Tony, and funny moments that happened during the weekend mornings that he had asked Friday to record. All that was missing was a clip from the video Peter had asked Friday to record to capture Tony's reactions to his party.
Shuri helped him edit it and put the video together while Loki was on the lookout for people. After Peter finished his gift he made him a quick note and wrapped it up.

By the time he got upstairs the adults had shifted from the living room where they were talking to the kitchen, in which they were helping themselves to new ration of chips and drinks.

When Stephen saw Peter entering he gave him a look, wondering if the gift was ready. Peter nodded and Stephen returned a nod before whispering something to Tony. Tony looked around and saw Peter, Shuri and Loki standing in the door frame. Peter was standing there awkwardly and nervously.

Tony excused himself and walked over to the kids. "Hey kid, Stephen told me you had to tell me something? Is everything okay? You look nervous."

"Yeah, everything is fine. I- I just, uh wanted to give you your present but I didn't want to give it to you in front of everyone in case you didn't like it. I mean, I spent too much time thinking about this because you have everything so it is kind of hard to choose a gift. But if you don't like it it is fine, I mean it's just-"

"Kid, you're rambling." Tony said.

"Yeah, sorry." Peter said sheepishly. "Oh right, the gift." Peter handed him a tablet, containing the video he made him. "You can uh, watch it later if you want because I know you are busy and all, I just wanted to give it to you early. I hope you like it."

Tony was smiling softly at his kid. "I'm going to love it. And I will watch it right now, the guests can wait."

Tony clicked play on the video, and he saw Peter sitting on his bed, looking at the camera.

" Hi Tony, Happy birthday! I spent too much time thinking of what to give you, because you have everything, so I uh, decided to make you a video. I just wanted to thank you for being there for me and for all the good memories, and that includes space. We make a really awesome team fighting the aliens, you hafta admit that. " Peter chuckled on the video. " Anyway, I hope you liked, like? your birthday party and everything. Bye, Dad ."

The video went to Stephen, who was sitting on Peter's bed. Peter was clearly filming and Tony could hear the small comments Peter made during the video as Stephen talked. He wished him a happy birthday and said some cheesy words.

The video skipped again. To Rhodey, Happy. Then Natasha, Steve and Bucky, Sam, Wanda, Vision, Thor and Bruce then Clint and his family. Then Wong.

And then the guardians of the galaxy.

Tony was teary looking at Peter's video. He was smiling at the tablet.

The video changed to the funny video compilation and finally to the last clip that was from today.

The video ended and Tony put the tablet on the surface nearest to him and went to hug Peter. "I love you, kid. Thank you so much."

Peter smiled into Tony's chest. "Love you too Dad."

"That is the best present I have ever gotten."

Peter smiled then looked behind tony, all the avengers were looking at them. "Anyway go to your party, they are waiting for you."

"Alright, alright, I'll leave." Tony smiled, walking back to where everyone was.

"What was that about?" Clint asked.

"Kid gave me his birthday present." Tony said. "Thanks to all of you by the way, the birthday videos were great." He turned to Stephen. "And your video was extremely cheesy." He smiled teasingly. "I almost didn't recognise you."

"Shut up." Stephen laughed.

"Nah." Tony laughed, sitting next to Stephen and leaned on him. Stephen put an arm around him. "You know, I'll just show how cheesy you were to everyone." He joked.

"Don't you fucking dare." He said without hate. "You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

Stephen stared at his boyfriend being cocky. "You are adorable."

Tony opened his mouth to protest. " I am not ! I am the great Iron Man!"

They both stared at each other in silence for a second then burst out laughing.

Everyone else was sitting around doing small talk as most of them are mostly used to the couple by now, except Clint, who had no idea they were even a thing.

"Uh what." Clint said confused. "When did that happen?"

"Officially? Not long ago." Bruce answered.

"But unofficially they have been dancing around each other for a while."

"Stephen since Titan." Rhodey laughed. "Wong told me."

"Well, thanks a lot for telling me, guys." Clint retorted.

Laura looked at Clint before turning to Tony and Stephen. "You two are a lovely couple." She smiled.

"Yeah man, it's nice to see you happy again." Clint said.

Stephen and Tony smiled.

____

Hours passed and the adults brought the heavy liquor, Tony decided it would be fun to play drinking games. So when they started they told Peter that him, Shuri and Loki would have to babysit Clint’s kids.

Loki groaned, not wanting to be around kids and tried to leave but Shuri and Peter stopped him.

“If we have to suffer taking care of kids, so do you.” Shuri said.

Peter was carrying Nathaniel in his arms while Shuri and Loki made sure Lila and Coop went with them to Peter’s room.

The teens had decided that since the avengers were occupying the living room, they couldn’t use that room so they chose Peter’s room which was the next most child-proof room in the compound.

Peter put Nathaniel on the bed and gave him his StarkPhone after quickly downloading some kid’s games. Nathaniel giggled and took the phone, happily playing with it.

Then Shuri and Peter started to show Lila and Coop how to play their video games. Since they were much older, it was easier to entertain and watch but since Nathaniel was only three, he was stuck with the StarkPhone and Peter.

When Loki saw how easy Lila and Coop were to take care of, he volunteered to help instead of just being there. So Shuri and Loki spent most of the time playing with the older kids and Peter with the smaller one, who would often throw a tantrum or two.

Meanwhile Lila and Coop were too amazed with Loki’s magic tricks to complain.

After two hours of babysitting they realised Loki’s magic would calm Nathaniel so Loki was stuck with him. Until he fell asleep.

When it was getting late, Shuri showed the two kids their guest room so they could sleep, as the two were so tired they were falling asleep on their feet.

When the three teens had put the kids to sleep they went to check on the adults.

When they entered the living room they saw bottles everywhere, most empty. Everyone was wearing a party hat. Peter had no idea where those came from. Tony was cackling at something so much he was resting his head on Stephen for support. They all seemed happy.

Clint was unconscious, if it was for fatigue or because of too many drinks, they didn’t know. Laura was still with a drink in her hand, laughing. Bruce was asleep on Thor’s shoulder and T’Challa, Natasha and Wanda were laughing at Sam, who was way passed normal drunk and talking to them with funny gestures. Happy and Rhodey were chatting and Thor, Bucky and Steve were making another drinking competition.

“They are going to have the worst hangover tomorrow.” Loki observed.

“Yup.” Peter agreed.

“You guys want to go play Mario Kart?” Shuri asked.

“Sure, why not.”

____

The next day, the adults indeed woke up with a horrible hangover, all except Bucky, Steve and Thor who couldn’t get drunk on normal alcohol. So they were stuck with making hangovers cures for everyone. Bucky knew a recipe from back in his day that tasted like shit but was effective.

Most of the day was passed with everyone sleeping and Peter and his friends taking care of Clint’s kids again.

On Monday, Laura and the kids left to their house, and Clint said he was going to be staying for a while. T’Challa and Shuri left for Wakanda as they had royal duties to attend and Peter left for school as normal.

At school, Peter had a normal, uneventful day. All his classes passed quickly and were boring and Flash didn’t bother him at all except for some weird glances he casted at him.

Everything was fine.

______

On Tuesday morning, Tony’s birthday, was when things got a little complicated.

Tony woke up really early in the morning by Peter and Stephen.

“Tony, wake up.” Stephen whispered to Tony.

“What time is it?” He slurred.

“It’s six-thirty.”

“It’s too early. Five more minutes.”

“Tony.” This time it was Peter who tried to wake him up.

“No.” He said sleepily.

“Daaad!” He laughed. “Wake up or I’m throwing you a glass of water on your face.”

Tony opened his eyes and slightly stood up. “Don’t you dare.”

“Here.” Peter said giving him a tray full of food. There was scrambled egg, a lot of bacon, some waffles, a muffin and a big cup of coffee.

“Happy birthday.” Peter and Stephen said simultaneously.

Tony took the tray of food and smiled. “Thank you.” He started eating the eggs. “This is delicious! Did you cook this?”

“We partially helped. Steve deserves most of the credit, we didn’t want to screw it up so we called him before any accidents happened.” Peter said.

“I love it.” Tony paused, “Shouldn’t you be at school kid?”

“It’s six thirty, I still have an hour till school. I just woke up early so I could wish you a happy birthday.”

Tony was halfway through his lunch when there was a knock on his door. Stephen frowned, as he had told the avengers not to come into Tony’s room until after he had his coffee because it was too early and he wasn’t a morning person.

“Come in.” Tony said.

Steve entered the room, followed by Bruce and Rhodey. They all had worried faces on. “Tony, we have a problem.”

Tony’s smile disappeared from his face and instantly went into fight or flight mode. “What is it? Another alien attack?”

“A threat?” Stephen asked, also worried.

“What is it?” Peter said.

“Tony, you might want to wat-” Bruce started.

Tony’s phone started ringing, it was Pepper and she only called that phone if it was an emergency. “Hold that thought, Bruce.” He said then answered. “What is it, Pep?”

“Anthony,” she started, she never used Tony’s full name unless something really bad happened.

“Pepper?” Tony said worried. “What is it?”

“Turn on the news.”

Bruce, Steve, and Rhodey grimaced as Tony turned on the tv.

They all watched.

Chapter Text

" We start our morning with the latest news. This latest scandal involves the one and only Tony Stark, known for owning Stark Industries and being a full-time avenger. The man is dating Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries who had announced their engagement a year and a half ago ." The TV started showing various pictures of Tony and Pepper together, including one of when they announced their engagement, and then a picture of them at the restaurant on Saturday showed up. Tony was giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Then the news reporter continued talking.

" While we wish these news were about said wedding, an anonymous person has told us that Anthony Stark has been cheating on Pepper Potts with some bloke ." A picture of Tony and Stephen at the park was shown, they were holding hands and Tony was looking at Stephen with a smile. Then showed another one with Tony clearly kissing Stephen when they were entering the car, but Stephen’s face was unidentifiable.

"As you see, folks, it is true. Even we didn't want to believe it at first, but our anonymous person told us, of course they had no proof but after some investigation, we brought to you the news." The newscaster said.

"It appears our beloved genius, billionaire, Playboy has not stopped  his old ways... ."

"Sir, what appears to be reporters have surrounded the front doors." Friday announced, showing a hologram of at least two dozen journalists and reporters around the compound with camera men and reporters.

Tony was paralyzed. He didn't know he was holding a breath until Stephen put a hand on his shoulder for comfort and he let it out.

No one in the room dared to speak and Peter was horrified, he wouldn't be able to leave the compound for now as journalists had blocked the exits.

"Tony?" Pepper was still on the phone.

Tony snapped out of his thoughts. "Yeah, I'm here... uh, shit. Listen, Pepper, you take some vacation time where the journalists won’t find you. I'll take care of this. You don't have to endure this shit."

"Tony, I can help. They have no right to invade your personal life and make assumptions. Not with all the legal issues I threw at them last time." Pepper shouted angrily, she was not angry at him but at the reporters who had nothing beter to do than leech onto other people's lives.

"Pep, don't worry. Stay away from the reporters and I'll handle this." Tony repeated.

"Anthony Edward Stark, don't you start. You have no clue how to handle this as I am the one who takes care of all the shit they rumour about you. It is literally my job not yours. You need my help whether you like it or not. And I deserve to help even more as this directly involves me."

"Listen, I'll think of something and I'll call you when I need to sue them all."

"You are impossible, Tony. I'll call you when you make more sense." Pepper decided. "I'm sorry this happened though, take your time." She said softly before hanging up.

"Tony?" Rhodey said. "How you holding up?"

"Not gonna lie, this was not how I wanted my birthday to go." Tony said. "But since when do I get what I want? Now I have to deal with this shit."

"We do." Bruce said. "How do we help?" He offered, getting nods of approval from Steve, Rhodey, Stephen and Peter, who also wanted to help.

Tony didn't know what to do. "Can you lot just wait outside? I need to change into some proper clothes. Can't deal with this mess in my pyjamas, can I?"

Everyone but Stephen left the room and Tony could finally panic in peace.

"This is peachy," he said, voice dripping in sarcasm. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" Stephen frowned.

"This." He gestured vaguely. "Because now you also have to endure the shit the reporters do. All because you are dating me." He said miserably.

"Hey, I am not blaming you for this and you don't have to apologise, we will just think of something."

"Well, we need to come up with a story for the journalists. Make sure they don't get your name. The picture they showed was covering most of your face so-"

"You don't want people to find out you are dating me." Stephen finished, slightly disappointed.

"Yes- no!" Tony yelled. "It's not that I don't want them to know because I am dating you in particular, but if they know your name and we make it official you can say goodbye to any privacy you may have had in the past. They are like cockroaches. They are everywhere and basically track your every move."

"They can try."

_______

Meanwhile Peter and the rest were at the living room, the avengers slowly woke up and were caught up to date. Natasha, Bucky and Thor were angry at the news and decided to pay the journalists outside a not so friendly visit until they were stopped by Friday due to protocols. Wanda, Vision and Clint were disgusted at the news because they couldn't believe they did that; invading someone’s personal life like that...  

They all unanimously decided to help Tony out. And were waiting for Tony to appear to tell them what they should do next.

All except Peter, who excused himself from the group to his room. He figured out in no time this was probably Flash's doing. It all fit so well, the threats and then this a few days later. This couldn't be a coincidence. It's just that Peter had no idea how on earth Flash could manage to start this scandal. But what he did know, was that it was his fault, or at least that is what Peter thought. He felt extremely guilty that this was his fault because this was his bully's doing and now Tony had to spend his birthday in the chaos.

He really needed to talk to someone, but Tony was out of question as he had too many things to take care of, and since the avengers were helping neither could they.

Loki.

Peter ran to Loki's room, holding in tears and barged in without knocking.  "Loki." He said, voice trembling.

The god was deep in his sleep since it was only seven in the morning so when Peter barged in, he got scared out of his sleep and immediately conjured a weapon to the intruder before he could see who it was. He registered that the intruder in his room was Peter, he lowered his weapon he had at hand and groaned. "Peter it's like… dawn. Too early." He then took a good look at Peter who was standing there with teary eyes and Loki could sense, with an extremely high amount of anxiety. The god immediately got up, worried, and walked up to Peter. "Peter? What's wrong? Who do I need to kill?"

Peter looked at the ground, voice trembling. "It's my fault."

Loki frowned. "What is?"

"I ruined Tony's birthday." Peter mumbled, looking at Loki.

Loki was not following. He just woke up and had no idea what was going on, all he knew was that Peter was upset. So, he made Peter sit next to him on his bed. "Okay, calm down and tell me what you are talking about."

"When Stephen and I woke up Tony with breakfast for his birthday, the news came on. The fucking roaches of journalists and reporters have started saying Tony is cheating on Pepper with Stephen and they showed photos of them." Peter paused, taking a deep breath. "So, now there are reporters and journalists and I don't know what else surrounding the compound and now Tony has to take care of this on his birthday."

Loki shook his head in displeasure as he listened. His past beliefs were right, some humans were like a plague that needed to be taken care of. He didn't understand how people could intrude so much in another person's life and fill it with lies. He understood it to some extent, he did grow up in a palace and was used to people intruding his privacy but never to this extent. Yet he was still confused about something. "Peter, that is really unfortunate and all but I don't see how it's your fault?."

"Because I know who is responsible for this. And I could have stopped it." Peter said.

"And who is that?"

"Flash."

Loki clenched his jaw at the name. He really hated that asshole.

Peter continued. "At least he must have been! He told me Tony and I would pay for it and then this happens a few days later. And if I would have given him the damn phone, I could have stopped it-"

"No. Stop." Loki cut him off. He was clenching his fists. "This is not your fault, and don't you even think for a second to continue blaming yourself. It was his doing and he should pay for what he did." Loki paused, then started grinning, not quite reaching his eyes and had a murderous glare in his eyes that disturbed Peter. "You know what? He will pay."

"Loki?" Peter asked. "What are you thinking? You are scaring me.

"Don't mind me. I'm just going to teach him a lesson." He transformed into his Asgardian clothes with his helmet. He got out the space stone and conjured a portal. "I'll be back in a second." He said before he stepped through the portal. Peter saw him turn into his Jotun form right before he crossed.

"Oh shit." Peter said. Loki left a small opening of the portal, enough for Peter to see what was happening.

Loki stepped inside Flash's room, where the kid was getting ready for school but stopped when he saw Loki.

"Cry for help and I will snap you out of existence." Loki hissed. His red eyes glaring at Flash.

"Wh-what is this about." He tried to say with false confidence.

"Why did you do it?" He challenged.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Flash shrugged.

"Don't you fucking start. Tony and Peter get threatened and then magically the journalists are all over Tony's private life?" Loki cursed

"What news?" Flash decided to play dumb.

"Listen to me, you arrogant dick. Peter might tolerate you bullying him. But I won’t. You go after the people I care about and I will make you pay. Of course, Peter is usually the one who begs me to spare your life." Loki said, he was walking calmly around the room and acting like the silver tongue that he is. "But lucky for me, he is not here to stop me." He smirked.

Meanwhile Peter was trying to shout through the portal because Loki was getting out of hand. But Loki didn't seem to hear him.

"You are bluffing." Flash gulped, eyes wide.

"Nah." Loki shrugged. "I have killed for way less." He took out his dagger.

"Please, Mr Loki, don’t stab me"

"Stab you? No, no, stabbing is reserved for my loved ones. You on the other hand... Should I break your neck? Freeze yo-"

Next thing Loki knew, he was falling through an orange portal onto the compound's living room.

"Care to explain?" Tony said, looking down on him.

Loki looked around and saw the avengers and Peter were in the room as well. "Went out for an errand."

Tony shook his head. "Care to try again? Stephen knows you were in Flash's house."

"I went for a quick chat." He shrugged.

"Loki." Peter quietly spoke up. "You were going to stab him."

"Not stab. Unless I don't have another choice but stabbing, I reserve it for special occasions. I only stab my loved ones. It's an act of fondness."

"You care for me, brother?" Thor smiled. He was touched.  

"Nope. Not at all." Loki said seriously. “I would sell you for a donut.”

"Back to the situation. Why did you go to Flash's?"

"Because thanks to him, poor Peter looked miserable a few minutes ago. Thinking it's his fault for this mess since Flash decided to come up with the scandal and share the news."

"He what?!" Stephen said in a rather calm rage. He took his sling ring out and portalled Flash to the living room and sat him on a chair before anyone knew what was happening. "Explain."

"How did I get here?"

"Why did you tell the press about me and Tony? No, scratch that, how did you even know? You better talk quick or I will send you to the Everest."

"This is kidnapping and that’s illegal." Flash cried out. He had passed from liking Tony to hating him after the field trip.  "And I found out because at the trip Mr Stark called you ‘Love’, and I thought that was weird as he is engaged to the Pepper Potts. So, I had a hunch and told the press, they gathered the rest of the evidence."

"But why did you do that?" Thor asked.

"As my duty as a civilian, I thought it important to share."

Peter was shocked. "Eugene, his private life has nothing to do with your 'civilian duty'." He barked, walking up to him to punch him before Loki stopped him.

"Son," Steve gave him the disappointed Captain America stare. "You shouldn't have done that."

"Whatever, I got praised enough by the media and my parents with this, so you can do whatever you want. The press is out there." Flash said. He certainly did not know when to stop.

"Okay, that is enough. Bye, bye." Stephen made a portal and Flash fell with a scream.

"What did you do?" Bruce asked.

"I didn't send him to the Everest, relax." Stephen said. "Just threw him in an endless void to make him fall." He mumbled. No one heard but Loki.

Loki knew exactly where the kid was sent as it happened to him a while ago. He chuckled. "He got what he deserved. Please let him fall for thirty more minutes." He whispered to Stephen.

Stephen nodded.

__________

Tony called Pepper for them to arrange a press conference for the afternoon. He had told her the plan and what was going to happen, and that it would be better if she was there too. After a few cancelled meetings, Pepper was on her way to the compound.

Peter was still feeling guilty about the whole situation, so the avengers spent all morning trying to cheer him up. Tony joined after dealing with some issues and spent his birthday morning snuggled between Stephen and Peter on a couch watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine with the avengers and Loki.

After watching TV for a few hours, Tony sighed as he got up, having to deal with the real world now. It was around one-thirty in the afternoon and the press conference was starting at three, so he thought he should start getting ready.

The rest of the avengers thought that as well, as they had explicitly told Tony they were going to the conference with him as support.

So now, Loki and Peter were left, as neither of them could show their faces in public. Peter, because no one knew he was living with Tony or who he was, so he couldn’t appear without an explanation and possibly a scandal. Loki on the other hand, could not even think of showing his face because, firstly, earth didn’t know he was alive, and much less living there. People still hated him for New York and There would be powerful people in the government who would most likely want him dead or captured.

So, Loki just sat next to Peter on the couch with a giant comfy blanket around them and spent the next hour playing video games.  

The clock turned three and the avengers started leaving the compound to the outside part where the press conference would take place.

Stephen stayed inside for the first part but waited close by in case anything happened.

Pepper was there, waiting for them. The avengers sat in the back, leaving Tony and Pepper to talk to the press. Tony had told them to do that.

The reporters were all screaming questions with their recorders and cameras on them.

Tony shushed them with his arms, making a ‘be quiet’ motion as everyone ceased to talk.

“I called for this conference, in the events of what occurred this morning, as you are all aware. I am here to make things right by explaining the real version of the events.” Tony adjusted his sunglasses.

“The evidence is clear, Mr. Stark. Denying it won’t fix anything. There are high quality pictures of you clearly kissing some guy.” One of the reporters called out.

“If you would have paid attention,” Tony flashed his signature press smile. “You would have heard me saying I was explaining the situation not denying it.”

“Why did you cheat on Ms. Potts?” One journalist asked professionally.

“I didn’t.” Tony said simply. The reporters were all confused. “Pepper and I broke up a while ago.”

Reporters started making noise again, yelling out questions and statements, saying they didn’t believe him.

“Quiet.” Pepper demanded. “Tony and I are indeed no longer a couple. We broke it off when we decided it wasn’t the best option for either of us to stay together.”

“Was that before or after he started screwing someone else!?” Some asshole yelled.

Tony stiffened. He really hated press conferences.

“That was extremely unprofessional of you Mister, now leave the premises before you are escorted.” Pepper said calmly. “And for your information, Tony has never cheated, we broke it off because we wanted better things for each other.”

“I realised I couldn’t give her what she needed, and neither could she give me what I needed.” Tony said sincerely.

He was going to continue before someone yelled out. “Was that because Tony Stark is gay?”

“I am Bisexual, thank you very much.” Tony said. “And I couldn’t give her stability and she couldn’t give me a life with me, so I would waste it.” He paused. “So, for everyone to be clear about the situation once in for all.”

Everyone was scribbling down notes and recording.

“What about the mystery man?” Someone yelled interestedly.

Tony looked at the inside of the compound, looking at Stephen who was at the door but hidden from the press. “My mystery man is a wonderful man who is standing with us today, actually.”

Everyone looked at the avengers behind Tony, wondering which of them was it.

“Is it James Barnes?”

“Bruce Banner?”

“Captain America?”

“Thor???”

Different people yelled out.

Tony snorted in amusement. “No, no, neither of them. Gods no.” He paused. “Please give a warm welcome to Stephen Strange.”

Stephen walked to Tony as all the cameras flashed at them, taking hundreds of pictures.

Tony put a hand on Stephen’s shoulder. “This man here likes to have a private life, so if he is even followed around while he is just living his life, I will get you fired.” He warned.

“Will you two take questions now, sir?” One young reporter at the front asked.

“You have ten minutes of my time.” He told the press. “Go.”

________

So far, Tony had answered questions, briefly, about the origins of the relationship and a couple other things but not saying anything about Stephen being a sorcerer.

After a few minutes of questions, Pepper excused herself as she needed to get to a meeting, and Tony and Stephen were now being bombarded with questions. The avengers decided to take some questions to take the attention from them and Tony appreciated it greatly.

“Mr Captain America, sir. There have been some rumours about you and the Winter Soldier, there was a picture of what looked like you and the Soldier at the invasion a few weeks ago, but it was blurry, and it was discarded.

Steve smiled. “This jerk?” He teased. Bucky rolled his eyes and Steve’s eyes went soft. “Yeah, I’m with him.”

The reporters went wild with that information, asking other questions and eventually asking Natasha. “Black Widow, what does your team say about a few people in the team swinging the other way?”

Natasha snorted. “As if any of us are straight.” She answered, but with a tone that made everyone question if it was a joke or not.

The next day was filled with newspaper and news articles surrounding Tony’s new relationships on the front page, with articles of Captain America’s relationship accompanied with a cartoon of him with his old shield painted with a pride flag. And on other articles there were conspiracy theories of what Natasha had said and who would possibly be dating who of the avengers.

The avengers had a laughing fit reading all the trash and news that day.

Chapter Text

In the following week after the scandal, the news had died down and the one time a reporter tried to follow Stephen, Tony ended up firing him and ended his career. After that no one dared to go near Stephen's private life again.

Everything was relaxed at the compound. Although Thor and Bruce had accidentally almost blown up the lab with some experiment Bruce was doing. Stephen had been missing in the compound most of the week because he had some duties to attend at the Kamar Taj. Tony was busy with meetings and work Pepper made him do and Rhodey was helping him manage it.

Peter was less than a week away from starting finals and he was not doing so great. The amount of stress he was under was beyond usual, with finals coming up, and homework, and his spiderman duties he barely had any sleep and Loki said he looked like a zombie in the mornings. However the one good thing about Peter's life at the moment was that Flash had stayed away from Peter this past week.

Flash really took it too far with the involvement of the press and had not liked it when Loki went to visit him. He swore he was going to make Peter's life a living hell. Until Stephen threw him in a empty void where he was falling nonstop for thirty minutes before falling back into his room, which made Flash too scared to go near Peter.

It was the Saturday just before finals and Peter walked in into the kitchen early in the morning, looking worse than ever. He was sliding his feet across the floor instead of walking normally, and his eyes seemed lost as if he was still half asleep.

Tony and Rhodey were there, making some breakfast so they saw when Peter walked in and went directly to serve himself some coffee that belonged to Tony, without saying anything.

Rhodey raised his eyebrows in amusement and confusion as he turned to Tony. Tony was frowning looking at his kid.

"Since when do you drink coffee?" Tony said. "Kid, you okay?"

Peter gave Tony a smile. "Yes, Tony, I'm fine. Just started drinking coffee for finals." He yawned.

"Kid, did you sleep at all last night?"

"Sure." He mumbled sleepily. "Just slept a little bit later because patrol took some time and I had to study."

Tony looked at Peter, unconvinced. "And how many hours was that?"

"Dunno. Like 3?" Peter yawned again. "But it's fine. That’s why I have coffee. Yesterday I was back to normal after my third cup, so.." he took a sip of his coffee in his Iron Man mug Rhodey had gotten for Tony but which was later stolen by Peter.

Tony frowned worriedly and shook his head. "Underoos, you are living on no sleep and coffee then? You cannot do that, it's extremely unhealthy, kid."

Rhodey snorted at Tony. "Are you really the one to talk, Mr 'I only run on caffeine'?"

"Not the point." Tony dismissed Rhodey's comment with his hand, giving him a half hearted glare. He had a ghost of a smile on his face. "Peter, that’s it." He decided, taking the coffee from a complaining Peter. "You, kiddo, are going to sleep right now. No buts, and you better not study until you are well rested. And I will know. Believe me, I will ask Friday."

"But, Dad!" Peter panicked. "I'm fine, I need to study! Give the coffee back." He pleaded.

"No, go back to bed." Tony grabbed Peter's shoulders and started dragging him to the elevator. "Go on, or do I need to tuck in the spiderbaby?" He teased.

Peter suppressed a laugh. "Oh, fuck off." He said without malice.

Tony's eyes went wide. "Talking to your old man like that? How rude!" He joked.

Peter closed the elevator doors and went to sleep.

____

Peter slept for 3 more hours before he woke up. He saw the time and mentally cursed himself because he was behind on his studies. So, he didn't leave his room and started studying right away, making sure not to make any noise so Tony would still think he was sleeping.

He studied for about an hour before he started panicking about his finals. He saw all the papers he had to memorise and study for. He let his head fall on his desk, groaning.

Not a minute after, Tony came in. "Hey Spiderling, you okay?" He said softly, frowning. "Friday told me you were panicking."

"Traitor." Peter muttered. “I'm fine." He lifted his head from his desk.

"Peter." Tony said, not believing Peter.

"It's just too much stress, finals start Monday and I have been studying so much but it still feels like it's not enough, and I can't afford to fail, Tony. I just can't." Peter whispered the last part, taking another paper from his desk and frowned as he tried to read it.

Tony sighed. He walked to Peter and sat in an empty chair near him. He clapped his hands together before speaking. "Pete, listen to me very carefully." He began, making eye contact with Peter. "You are the most talented kid I know. I have seen your full potential and you are beyond high school. You could be in college right now if you wanted. You are so damn smart. Hell, you created the web formula and web shooters by yourself in a classroom and you clearly can keep up with the technology of my suit." He grasped Peter's shoulder. "My point with all of this is, you are way smarter than High School, you could pass these tests in your sleep. I know you can."

Peter slightly smiled, looking down. "You really think so?"

"Of course, kid. I know so. But you have to relax a bit, take some breaks. Sleep."

"It's just, I feel like I have to try my best and make the most of my studying time." He paused. "I just want to make you and May proud."

"Oh, Pete, we already are so, so proud." Tony looked at him, with a caring smile.

Peter looked at him for a few seconds before launching himself to give the man a hug.

"You need to stop studying as much though, because if you are not well rested you will not do good on your exams."

"Alright, alright. I'll just finish studying physics and then I'll take a break." Peter smiled at Tony. He sat on his desk with a clearer mind than before.

"Physics, huh?" Tony said. "Let me help you with that."

____

After studying physics with Tony for about an hour, Tony called it a day and demanded Peter took a break. They had been studying well. Tony knew the kid was a genius so he didn't have to do much explaining. He realised Peter only needed moral support while studying and after a few dozen questions, Peter felt he was ready for that test.

He went to the kitchen to get some food before he went back to study. He found Bucky, serving himself some lasagna and orange chicken that Steve had cooked earlier.

"Hey, Peter, how is the studying going?"

"Could be better, but could be worse. I just finished physics and now I need to study history, biology and chemistry. I’m not studying calculus because I'll just stress myself, and Tony says I could pass that in my sleep."

"Back in my day school was different, different subjects mostly... I wasn't as good in some classes." Bucky smiled as he remembered the olden days. "I could help you with history if you want, I was pretty good at it. What are you studying?"

"Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression." Peter said.

Bucky faked a gasp. "And you didn't think to come to me or Stevie for help? We were literally there." He went up to Peter and put an arm around his shoulders. "Come Spider Kid, let me tell you about the roaring twenties, I was just a kid then, but I remember it nonetheless..."

Bucky and Peter sat in the living room as they ate and Bucky told Peter all about his childhood, including the political, economic and social issues of the time. Peter was fascinated with Bucky's story and paid close attention as he ate. He barely stopped looking at Bucky when the old man was telling him of a story of how he ended up helping some bootleggers when he was a child, and ended in a speakeasy at the small age of ten.

Peter loved hearing about it and didn't realise how much time had passed until Tony walked in and asked if they wanted a snack.

By then, Bucky had already explained the Great Depression and was finishing up on what he remembered. So they both stood up as they saw the time and Peter thanked Bucky for his help and gave him a quick hug. He did love listening to childhood stories from his self appointed grandpa. Even though listening to stories about the thirties wasn't fun at all...

Peter went to his room and went over his history notes, noticing he now knew almost everything in his textbook now, thanks to Bucky. He smiled, way less stressed than he was in the morning.

He saw the time and decided to go out on patrol for a while before coming back to study. He told Friday to notify Tony of his whereabouts before he sneaked out of the window and started webbing himself through the trees to get to the city.

He came back at 2 a.m. He knew that he was way past curfew so he tried to enter as silently as possible. He was used to doing that with May and no one would know he was out, but he forgot Friday monitored the entire building.

He turned on the lights to his room and slightly jumped when he saw Tony sitting on his bed scrolling through his phone. The man looked up and put his phone away.

"Two hours late? No big crimes happened tonight. Where were you?"

"Don’t you know where I was? I thought you would have tracked the suit by now." Peter took his mask off putting it on his desk. "Sorry I took so long, I lost track of time."

"Me tracking your suit? What do you take me for? A helicopter parent?"

"You literally chipped my last suit. So, did you track my suit?" Peter asked unamused.

"Of course." Tony said. "You were in the park for an hour and a half. But Karen didn't give me access to the camera in the suit because you weren't in danger. So, care to explain?"

"I was doing Spider-Man business as usual." Peter said.

Tony looked at him, not believing him, waiting for Peter to continue. "Uh huh."

"There was a dog that seemed lost so I stayed with him until his owner showed up." Peter smiled getting his phone out. "His name was Thor and he’s adorable." He showed Tony a picture of him in his Spider-Man suit hugging a golden retriever while looking into the camera.

Tony smiled at the picture and at Peter. "You need to show that to Thor tomorrow." He yawned. "Well, I better be off then." He hugged Peter. "Next time don't be late, you worried me." He got up and started to leave the room. "Goodnight kiddo."

"G'night Dad."

________

The next day he woke up early again. He couldn't concentrate in his room enough to study so he decided to go somewhere quiet and without distractions. He went to Bruce's lab. He didn't go to Tony's or his own lab because there were too many projects he was working on that would get him distracted and the living room was out of the question. He thought this lab would be fine, as he never knew half the things that were going on Bruce's lab so he wouldn't get distracted. Plus, Bruce tended to use the lab in the afternoons so he was fine.

He had been taking notes for an hour when Bruce walked in with a cup of coffee, not noticing Peter there until he was close enough that he was startled.

"Peter?" Bruce said. "What are you doing here? This is my lab right? Or did I confused them again?"

"Oh shit, sorry." Peter said quickly picking up his stuff so he could leave.

"Hey, calm down. I'm not telling you to leave." Bruce put his coffee mug on the table next to Peter. ”What are you doing here?”

"I was studying, but my room was too distracting and the other places too, so I thought here would be a calming place to study. I thought you only came here in afternoons, sorry for intruding by the way." Peter rambled nervously.

"And you thought my lab would be calming?" He said, not following. "You do realised half this stuff are chemical components that are definitely not calming." Bruce sat next to Peter. "But if it works for you then be my guest. I'll do some quick work and I'll leave."

"No, Bruce, this is your lab I should really get going so I don't disturb you."

"Nonsense, you aren't disturbing me. I'm just bored so I came down here. Thor is busy with Loki since he was finally able to convince him to spend some sibling time together, and the avengers aren't fully awake yet." Bruce took a sip of his coffee. "So, what are you studying?"

"Right now I'm making notes for biology, then I have to study chemistry."

"Need some help? That is right in my areas of expertise."

"Are you serious?" Peter said shocked.

"Peter, I have a PHD in Biochemistry-"

"Yeah, I know. You have 7 PHD's in total, including biochemistry, radiophysics and nuclear physics. I know all that, I meant, are you seriously offering to help me study?"

"Wow kid, you really know my biography apparently." Bruce chuckled. "And yeah, why wouldn't I help you?"

"Because you are the Bruce Banner. You probably have better things to do than help me."

"Peter, I literally live with you, you know half my activities are out of pure boredom. And why wouldn't I help you? This should be fun."

"Thank you, Bruce." Peter said happily before getting his notes out to show Bruce.

_______

"Peter, are you done studying?" Loki appeared on Bruce's lab and walked towards Peter. "Hey, big guy." He greeted Bruce then redirected his attention to Peter.

"Yeah! Bruce helped me with the last two subjects I needed to study. We finished a few minutes ago and he was showing me his projects."

"So, you are free?" Loki smirked.

"I guess, still have to reread the notes for tomorrow's exam though."

"Great news." Loki smiled. "Bruce, we are kidnapping Peter for a while. Tell Tony he is in good hands and we will have him back at a reasonable time." Loki yelled over at Bruce before getting Peter and teleporting them somewhere else.

"We? Loki wait-" Bruce tried to yell over the portal before they disappeared but it was no use. "Great." He sighed.

_

“What is this?” Peter said as soon as Loki transported him through the portal.

“We are kidnapping you so you can take a break from stress.”

“We?”

“Thor and I.” Loki answered.

“Thor? Since when do you two spend time together without injuries? Loki did you stab him to come?”

As on cue Thor walked in with his axe and a wide smile on his face. “Not at all, Peter. He hasn’t stabbed me yet.”

“Then what?-“

“Well, I was spending some time with my brother after he finally agreed to. After I insisted for a few weeks.” Thor explained. “And we decided to take you somewhere around the city to relieve you of the stress of midgardian schools.”

“That is... so nice of you two.” Peter said quietly. “Thanks.” 

“Don’t mention it.” Loki gave him a quick smiled before transforming his clothes into a mundane three piece suit, all black with a green tie. “I’m ready now. Shall we?”

“First stop here we go.” Thor grinned as he got near Loki and Peter with his Storm Breaker.

“Wait, where are we going?” Peter asked. He got no answer as Thor had summoned the bifrost before he could finish talking.

——

Two hours later, Tony was in his penthouse with Rhodey and Bucky, trying to communicate with Thor. After Bruce had given them the news that apparently Loki temporarily kidnapped Peter, they had gone to Thor for questioning and when none of them found him, they got to the conclusion that Thor was with Peter and Loki.
So, Tony had tried calling him, Peter and Loki but none of them answered the phone. Tony wasn’t as worried as other times, because no matter if he trusted Loki or not, he knew Loki cared about Peter, so he would be fine. He was just worried because he had no clue where his kid was or when they were arriving.

Rhodey was trying to help Tony track Peter and Bucky was giving them moral support and drinks. When he found out about the Peter situation, he wanted to help.

So, two hours later there they were, on the couch of Tony’s penthouse, when there was thunder from outside and seconds later Thor, Loki and Peter were walking into the compound.

They were wearing funny hats and shirts that appeared to be from a souvenir shop. As soon as they walked in Tony ran to inspect his kid and the others.

“Where the hell where you three?”

“Mostly New York” Loki told him.

“Mostly?”

“It was awesome, Dad! They took me to random tours around the city and even took me to London for a quick stop. We bought souvenirs for everyone.” Peter said excitedly handing Tony a shirt they got from a London gift shop.

“What? How?” Rhodey interfered.

“I took them with the bifrost, we thought Peter needed some time off from his studies.” Thor said happily.

“Did anyone see you? The bifrost tends to give a lot of unwanted attention.” Bucky frowned.

“It was fine, I casted some illusions so they couldn’t see us when we arrived with the bifrost.” Loki chimed in. “No one even knew we were there.

Tony looked at Thor and Loki disapprovingly and then looked at Peter who was almost jumping from excitement about his trip. “Usually, I would kill you both from taking my kid away without giving anyone any clue to where you had gone. But, no one is injured or lost and Pete does seem relaxed so I will let it go.” He announced.

Thor and Loki gave him a quick nod.

“Now, kiddo,” Tony turned to face Peter again, “tell me all about your trip.” He put an arm around his shoulder as they walked to the kitchen. “But make it quick so you can study for tomorrow’s tests.”

“Well, Loki got us free tickets to....” Peter rambled his story as they went to get some food.

They talked for about half an hour before Peter excused himself to reread his notes and prepare for finals. He had a big week coming ahead.

Chapter Text

Two days. It had been two days since finals had started and Peter felt like being crushed by the vulture again would be better than three more days of this; stress and sleep deprivation.

He was doing fine in his exams, he studied hard for them and so far had gotten good grades on all, with the help of Bruce and Tony he had gotten the best grade in chemistry and physics and on biology he got second best.

Three days and he would be finally free and on summer vacation. The only thing was, he didn't know if he could make it three more days. That was, until Shuri decided to arrive to the compound for a visit because T'Challa was being annoying again so she stole one of the Wakandan jets with the help of Okoye, who helped distract T'Challa.

When Shuri arrived, Peter was studying in his room, and by studying it meant sleeping with a bunch of papers all around him. Friday woke him up and announced Shuri's arrival, so he ran out of his room to greet her. Loki came shortly after and the three spent the rest of the afternoon playing Mario Kart until Peter realised, he had to study for his finals the next day.

MJ and Ned arrived at the compound the next day with Peter after school. They had the same final the next day, so they decided to hang out and study together. Shuri and Loki helped the three kids study as they had nothing else to do.

They were studying in the kitchen, because they decided it was easier to have food next to them while they studied than having to go get food every few minutes.

Shuri was helping MJ study, meanwhile Ned and Peter were half rambling about their favourite movies and reviewing notes. Loki was eating a bag of chips while sitting on the counter.

They studied for a few hours, the three teens were exhausted, and Loki had fallen asleep while eating his third bag of chips.

So, when the avengers walked in, they walked into a room full of tired teens with a bunch of papers lying around.

"Hey Underoos, Shuri, Ted, MJ." Tony greeted them. "We were going to get some dinner, want some?"

"Thanks Mr Stark, I'm starving." Ned said with a weak smile before returning to his notes.

"How's the studying going?" Bruce asked.

MJ gave a weak thumbs up. "Well, we are dead inside now, but at least we have learned some useless information I'll probably forget after tomorrow."

"I take the study isn't going so well." Steve said as he entered the room with Bucky.

"Yeah, at this point I'm just asking myself, when will death befall me?" Peter said with a serious face. MJ and Ned nodded in agreement.

"Peter, now don't say that. Cheer up! You only have tomorrow left and then you are free." Thor said, frowning.

Then Bucky walked to Peter and put a hand on his back. "I get ya, kid. We can only pray the reaper will arrive early for his appointment with us."

"Big mood." Ned said.

"Uh, what?" Rhodey said, looking at the younglings and Bucky. Tony sighed. After last time, he did some research and found out all about fatalistic humour, which he found amusing, and he knew there was no point in stopping them.

"Finals." MJ shrugged, looking at Rhodey.

"You guys need to cheer up." Natasha stated, eyeing the teens.

"Or we can die." MJ added, with a smirk.

"There is bleach under the sink." Steve said. Everyone except the kids, Bucky and Tony turned to look at him in complete horror.

"Steve, what the fuck?" Bruce stuttered.

"And a rope in the supply closet if you want more options." Bucky spoke again, giving the kids a wink after the horrified avengers were looking at him.

"Nah, you fools." Shuri said.

"At least this one has more sense." Sam said.

"Don't be a coward. Jump out of the window. Have some style, would you?" Shuri finished her thoughts.

"Uh, Tony aren't you going to say something about this?" Clint, who had been quiet all this time, finally spoke up. He was frowning and looking at the kids worried and at Steve and Bucky as if they were some psychos.

Tony looked at Peter and subtly winked. Then he looked at the avengers, then back at the kids. He pointed to the window. "Do a flip."

"Tony?!" Rhodey exclaimed. "The fuck?"

Then the kids, Bucky, Steve, Tony and Loki, who had been observing everyone since he woke up, started giggling and laughing.

"Care to explain what is going on?" Sam questioned.

Tony stopped laughing for a second. "Fatalistic humour, you genius."

"And how come Mr. Grandpa here is understanding that?" Clint pointed at Bucky and Steve.

"We grew up during the Great Depression and World War Two, you really think we don't know this humour? We invented it." Bucky said with a grin.

"I'm just going to go now. This has been too weird, on so many levels." Bruce excused himself after he grabbed whatever he could find on the fridge and left, followed by Thor.

______

The next day, Peter, Ned and MJ finished finals and were going back to the compound to celebrate it with Shuri and Loki.

They arrived at the compound and found a few of the avengers, including Tony and Stephen, in the living room.

"Hey kids, are you finally free?" Stephen asked, he had his arm around Tony's shoulder and was sitting on the couch.

"Yeah! Finally free and we can now finally celebrate pride month, or what is left of it. Since finals didn't let us focus on it before." Peter said cheerfully.

"It's going to be awesome! We are thinking of going to a pride parade on Sunday." Ned chimed in.

"And Peter is thinking of going as Spiderman." MJ said amused.

"Pride huh?" Tony smiled and then he thought of something. "Going as allies or?" Tony asked, he has now realised he never knew if Peter was queer or not, and he hadn't thought of asking until now.

Peter opened his mouth for a second. "Oh right, that's what I forgot to do." He mumbled to himself. Then he turned to Tony and Stephen. "Nah, I'm bi." He grinned.

"And I'm pan, don't really have a preference if I'm honest." Ned said.

"Asexual Biromantic here." MJ did the finger guns at the avengers.

"Nice." Sam said, he was sitting on another couch with Natasha, who returned the finger guns at MJ.

"Cool kid, I'm proud of you and I'm glad you told us." Tony smiled.

Thor, Shuri and Loki walked in and they greeted the other teens. "What is taking you so long? Friday announced your arrival a few minutes ago."

"We were talking about pride, and we realised we had forgotten to tell Tony and the rest about it. Now they know I'm Spider-Bi." Peter told them.

"Coolio." Shuri said. "I'm a lesbian."

Thor, who had been watching the internet humour since the events of yesterday, thought he knew it was a reference and said. "I thought you were American."

Shuri laughed for about a minute. "Thor, I'm proud you made a vine reference. But this one time, I was being serious."

“Oh...” Thor said, he thought he had understood the reference but nevertheless he smiled. “That is great my friend. I have a lot of girls who fancy girls, I might introduce you to some. I am a great match maker.”

Loki scoffed. “Brother, just because you got one couple together doesn’t mean you are a match maker.”

“I also introduced Sif to this woman back in Asgard and they dated for a while.” Thor objected.

“Thor, the god of lesbians!” Peter said dramatically. Shuri laughed.

“Anyway,” Tony interrupted. “If you guys are going to a pride parade just let us know, it might be nice to go.” He smiled.

“Iron Man at a pride parade!?” Ned exclaimed. “That would be amazing! Everyone would go insane!!”

Tony chuckled. “Sounds fun.” He looked up to Stephen, who was being used as a pillow for Tony. “What do you think Gandalf? Should we make an appearance?”

Stephen pondered for a moment before grinning. “Let’s do it.”

Peter giggled and jumped. “This is going to be awesome.”

________

The day of the parade, the streets at the centre of New York were flooding with people and rainbow banners.

MJ, Shuri and Ned were already there. Shuri had the lesbian flag on her cheek and was wearing a rainbow hoodie, Ned had a pan flag wrapped around his head like a bandana and MJ had a bi shirt and the ace flag painted on her cheek. They were waiting for Peter to arrive.

MJ, Shuri and Ned were enjoying the parade, making small talk with people who came to talk to them when suddenly Spiderman came in swinging from the buildings with a bi flag attached as a cape. Everyone saw and started cheering, MJ, Shuri and Ned were filming the whole thing because it was amazing.

Spiderman swinged around greeting everyone as he passed until he stopped at the end of the path, were the people stopped. “Hello!” He said cheerfully. “Spider-Bi here at your service! Have a nice day!” He said quickly before he disappeared as he swinged away from the event.

Then there was the sound of thrusters, and Iron Man flew in. He had a suit painted with the bi colours all over it.

Meanwhile everyone cheered and asked Tony a bunch of questions, Peter showed up with Shuri, Ned and MJ, he was out of his Spiderman suit and was just hanging out with his friends. He then felt someone grab his shoulder and he turned around and saw Steve, Bucky, Stephen, Thor and Loki.

Thor was wearing a hoodie and some sunglasses, so people wouldn’t notice him much, but he had a small pride flag on his hoodie. Bucky was wearing rainbow bracelets and a hoodie to cover his arm. Steve was wearing a cap and had the bi flag on his cheek, holding Bucky’s hand. Stephen was wearing normal clothes with a gay flag pin on his shirt, and a rainbow bracelet.

And then, there was Loki, who had an actual cape like the ones from Asgard, but it was all in pride colours, he was wearing sunglasses and a tank top with an alien painted in rainbow colours with ‘Homosexualien.’ written at the top, he had the pan flag and the nonbinary flag painted on his cheeks. He was almost unrecognisable with his hair in a messy bun.

“Hello, guys!” Peter said smiling, appreciating how amazing their outfits were. “I didn’t know you guys were coming too, it’s great.” He looked at Loki. “I have no idea what you are wearing or why you are wearing that but that is amazing, Loki.”

Loki smirked. “Because I can’t get recognised or there will be problems, so I went incognito.” He pointed to his sunglasses and hair bun. “And this,” he showed his clothes, “is because I’m gay.”

“That is pretty cool.” MJ said. “But if you want to stay incognito, you should stay with us,” she pointed to Peter, Ned, Shuri and herself. “Because the avengers will attract attention, on the other hand, we are practically invisible.”

“Good point. See ya later, morons.” Loki smirked and left before anyone could say anything, and he took the kids with him.

While that happened, Tony had gotten out of his bi iron man suit, which was now tucked away in his arc reactor. He was wearing sunglasses with the pride flag on and a shirt that had the design of one of the elements of the periodic table, that had the word Bi in big letters, which underneath had the element ‘bismuth’ written and was coloured in pink, purple and blue. He flashed his signature smile and went into the crowd looking for Stephen.

The rest of the crowd, or most of it, continued with their celebrations and only a few people stared and tried to talk to him.

Tony finally found his friends and Stephen and gave his boyfriend a peck on the lips before greeting Bucky and the others.

He knew a lot of photos were being taken of them at the moment, but he couldn’t care less. He spent the rest of the time enjoying the event with the few avengers that were there.

He saw Peter and his friends around a couple of times nearby, but he just smiled at them before moving on. He knew the press would have a field day if they found out about Peter.

He did have to reboot his brain when he saw Loki in a bun and tank top, he was not expecting Loki to be there, and much less like that. He laughed at the sight and moved on.

They stayed there for a few hours before they returned to the compound, where he was met by a very enthusiastic Peter.

“Dad! Today was amazing! Everyone was talking about the avengers and Spiderman and you guys are trending on social media! You put on quite a show and people are loving how adorable you and Stephen are.” Peter rambled happily. “Loki was complimented on his outfit so many times and no one recognised him, you should have seen it, it was awesome. And Ned and Shuri basically spent half the time looking for any snacks and food places and they ended up at a shawarma place, and we brought you food since you love the place.” Peter took a pause from his rant before he continued. “Steve, Bucky, you are trending on Twitter and people are calling you Starbucks, it’s awesome!”

“Today was the best day ever!” Ned chimed in.

Tony smiled at his rambling kid. “I am glad to see you all cheery, although I wished I could have spent it with you, kid, but you know how the press is.” He gave his kid a hug. “Now, how come you went to a shawarma place without me? I’m offended.” He joked.

“We brought you and Stephen food. I say that is a fair deal.”

“Shawarma?” Stephen asked amused.

“You have never tried it?” Tony gaped. “This is unacceptable, Dumbledore.” He teased. “We are eating it right now.”

“It’s on the kitchen.” Peter said, still smiling.

“Peter!” MJ exclaimed. “Look!” She handed him her phone. “Spider-Bi is trending and look at all of the pictures and videos people took.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon gushing about the day and playing video games as they checked the news for all the news that was revolving about the avengers that day. Stephen liked the Shawarma and the rest of the avengers eventually ended up gathered in the living room watching the news, which turned into an amazing movie night.

Chapter Text

"Peter, Boss wants you to go to the workshop, says it's urgent." Friday announced to Peter, who was currently in Loki's room, playing video since Shuri left earlier that day.

"Thanks Fri, tell Dad I'll be right there."

"And just when we got to the good part." Loki protests, pointing at the TV.

"I'll be back, just gonna go and see what he wants. He said it was urgent. I have to go and see if everything is okay."

"Fine, abandon me." Loki joked dramatically.

"Drama queen." Peter rolled his eyes at Loki, as he walked out the door.

He went into the workshop and found Tony sitting on a chair near the table reading something on his phone.

"Hey, Tony. What’s the emergency?"

"Underoos!" Tony exclaimed happily. "No big emergency, but I just received an email from your school."

Peter groaned. "Now what?" He was done with school, quite literally, he ended his last final a few days ago and he was perfectly content if he didn't hear anything from it during his summer vacation.

"I just received your report card, and the results of your finals." Tony said, then he stood up and hugged Peter. "They were all incredibly high. I told you, you would do amazing. I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks, Dad." Peter smiled and hugged him back.

Tony pulled away from the hug, still grabbing Peter's shoulder. "Anyway, Stephen and I wanted to celebrate that you are finally free and also congratulate you for the grades, so we wanted to take you somewhere nice for dinner."

"I- thank you so much!"

"Don't mention it." Tony smiled. "Now, go put some actual clothes, not those sweatpants you've been wearing all day. We leave in an hour."

"Okay, okay." Peter said. "Can I invite Loki?"

"Sure." Tony sighed.

_______

"Let's go!" Peter ran to the workshop all cleaned up and in different clothes. Ah he entered, he saw Tony was in a pun t-shirt with a blazer on top and his sunglasses. Stephen was already there, in normal clothes as Tony had protested about his boyfriend wearing Harry Potter clothes in the middle of a restaurant.

"You ready?"

"Duh."

"Fine, let’s go. Happy is driving." Tony said. "So, is Loki coming then?"

"Yeah! Although he transformed himself to look different so people won’t spot him."

"Fair enough."

They got inside the car. It was a limousine so everyone could fit in nicely and comfortably. Tony was in the front part of the back, sitting next to Stephen, leaning on him, and Loki was in the opposite side sitting next to Peter.

"I have to ask. Pete told us earlier that you were going to be transforming to look like someone else, but you look exactly like you always do." Stephen finally asked.

"I am not exactly transforming myself this time, just casting a simple illusion to anyone that sees me, except you three of course, so they will think I am a random person, and won't bat an eye and we can relax from anyone finding out I'm alive." Loki explained.

"So that is a good way to avoid extra press." Peter added. "Although, makes me wonder, the press is everywhere these past few weeks, so how are we going to get into any restaurant without getting noticed?"

"That, kiddo, is a good concern but everything is going to be taken care of, and you have Pepper to thank for. She organised everything last minute when I told her I wanted to take you to dinner as a celebration. She talked to the restaurant and we are using the back entrance and they have a separate table waiting for us." Tony said, looking at Peter.

"Awesome."

"Yeah, although Tony didn't let me make a portal to the restaurant, because that would have been much easier." Stephen chimed in.

"That's because the press still thinks you are a civilian, darling. We can't have anyone being a snitch about how we appeared out of nowhere with Dumbledore doing some Gandalf magic."

"Nerd." Stephen said lovingly, as he rolled his eyes.

Tony just smiled at his boyfriend.

"Ugh, you two are disgustingly adorable." Peter said, faking the annoyance and smiling at them. Loki nodded.

"We are here." Happy announced, interrupting the conversation.

They got out of the car. They had parked in an underground parking lot, as that entrance was closed to the public so they could go through there without the press being annoying.

Stephen, Tony and Loki started walking towards the door, which was a few dozen meters away. All because they couldn't find a space closer to the entrance.

As the three walked and talked, Peter was quieter than usual as he inspected the place, he was walking nervously and feeling on edge. All because the columns on the parking lot, and, the place in general, looked very much alike to the place the vulture threw the building on him by breaking all the columns supporting it.

Peter was mostly over it; the vulture incident, but every so often he would be in situations where he was reminded too much of the incident and he wasn't as fine as he would like it to be.

He walked looking around at the columns as if they were going to fall at any second, he was walking slower as the memories started and he was now hyper aware of the sounds, well any sound except the voices of three worried family members that were talking to him.

"Underoos? Pete? Peter?" Tony said quickly trying to get Peter's attention.

"Sorry, what?" Peter snapped out of his thoughts and realised he had completely stopped walking and his mentors and Loki were near him, frowning.

"Are you okay?" Tony asked, already getting to eye level with Peter and putting a hand on his arm, as to check what was wrong.

"What happened, Peter?" Loki asked worried.

"Nothing" Peter said quickly in a high-pitched voice. "I just, got lost in my thoughts for a second."

"Pete..." Tony said, obviously not believing him.

"Peter?" Stephen said slowly, raising an eyebrow. He assessed quickly the situation and realised there could be only one thing causing it. "Is this," he gestured vaguely, "because of the Vulture thing?"

"What vulture thing?" Loki and Tony practically said it at the same time.

Peter looked away and nodded. "Nothing. Can we go eat? I am starving." He tried to change the subject.

"What vulture thing? What does this have to do with the airplane incident or the lake one?" Tony asked confused, still frowning.

"Oh." Stephen said quietly. "You don't know."

"Know what? Who is the vulture?" Loki asked threateningly.

"Dad, Loki can we please not, I want to go eat." Peter tried to change the subject again. "Wasn't this a celebratory dinner for me? Or is this an interrogation?"

Tony sighed, defeated. "Fine, but you are not escaping this, when we get home, we are going to have a talk you and me, I have questions."

Loki didn't say anything but kept eyeing Peter as they all walked to the restaurant.

They all got seated in a table far away from any windows and there were barely any people in the restaurant, and they all were away from them.

Tony ordered a bacon burger, saying they were the best thing he had tasted, Stephen ordered a steak, Loki ordered lobster and Peter ordered another burger. They were all happily eating and making small jokes or snarky comments at each other, basically having fun.

At one point Peter almost spit out his drink because of something Loki had said. Tony tried to steal some fries from Peter and Peter smacked his hand.

“Joey doesn’t share food.” Peter said, quoting Joey from Friends.

Stephen laughed and shook his head.

“How dare.” Tony smiled.

“Dad, they are my fries, I need to eat more than the average human so I will eat all I can get. Otherwise I get hungry every hour.”

“Peter, I am a literal billionaire, you could literally order any amount of food you want every day.”

“Yeah I know, but we are in a restaurant, I can’t exactly order three different plates and eat them before you finish one or people will notice.” Peter explained and passed a handful of fries to Tony.

“So, Peter, any plans for vacation?” Loki asked taking a bite of his food.

“Just spend it at the compound I guess, May texted me telling me she couldn’t come until my birthday so for the next month I’ll hang out with you and MJ, Ned and Shuri.”  

“No can do, kiddo.” Tony said casually.

“What?” Peter whined. “Why?”

“Because I’m kidnapping you away for a week to Malibu. Stephen is coming too, but that’s it, as much as I like the avengers, I need some peace and quiet for a few days, seriously, they are always doing noise.” Tony huffed.

“You want me to go to Malibu with you?” Peter’s eyes widened.

“That’s what I said. Got a house there, technically it got blown up a few years ago when I threatened a terrorist, but I rebuilt it. Now it’s better and safer.”

“And cooler.” Stephen chimed in. “I saw the blueprints.”

“Awesome!” Peter smiled widely.

_______

Dinner ended without any problems and they headed home. They never found any annoying journalist or reporter and were able to enjoy their dinner in peace.

While they were in the car, Peter tried to come up with a way to avoid the interrogation ahead of him. He never told Tony about the vulture throwing a building on him because he knew Tony being Tony, would blame himself and he did Not want that.

So, he pretended to fall asleep in the car. He knew Tony would never wake him up if he was clearly tired.

They arrived home and Loki volunteered to carry him to his room since he was ‘sleeping’. Tony and Stephen appreciated it.

When Loki put Peter in his bed he turned around and Peter thought he had fooled everyone, he would just have to come up with a way to avoid the interrogation tomorrow.

Loki walked to the door and closed the door with him inside. “I know you are awake.”

Peter sighed. “Fuck.” He mumbled annoyed. He got up and sat on his bed.

“You don’t fool me Peter, you are lucky Tony and Stephen don’t know the art of fake sleeping. But I invented it.”

“Well I am actually tired so...”

“What happened at the parking lot Pete?” He demanded.

“Nothing, doesn’t matter.” Peter said.  

“You froze in your spot and were in the verge of a panic attack.” Loki countered.

“Happened years ago, it’s nothing.” Peter said crossing his arms.

“Peter.” Loki said frowning. “It is not nothing, it affected you, it matters.”

“It. Is. Nothing.”

“Who is the Vulture?” Loki sighed, changing the subject.

“Loki.” Peter groaned. “Stop asking me about what happened.”

“I technically asked you about The Vulture not the incident.”

“Some guy I fought.”

“Peter ‘overshare’ Parker is being vague? Oh my” Loki deadpanned.

“My Ex-Girlfriend’s Dad, who was also a villain who made weapons with alien technology and tried to steal from Tony, made me almost drown and stuff.” Peter explained. “Happy now?” He really did not want to talk about it, it was a long time ago it shouldn’t matter.

“No.”

“Fine, three questions, that’s all you get then you leave.” Peter said.

“Deal.” Loki said. He knew he was pushing it, but he was worried. To be fair he usually got the information he needed whenever he wanted, but that usually was with torture, so he had no idea how to make Peter tell him what is wrong, so he just kept asking. Apparently, it worked. “Did this Vulture idiot tried to kill you? Meaning, did he fought to kill or to incapacitate?”

“Yes, fought to kill.”

“You sure?” Loki said coldly.

“Yeah, he told me when I took Liz to the Homecoming dance. He could have killed me right there, I was in his car alone after Liz got off, but since I saved his daughter, he said he would spare me that time. But he said if I followed him, he would kill me. Which he tried, even when I tried to save him.” Peter shrugged.

“Why the fuck would you try to save him? From what? You kill people if they try to kill you Peter! Kill not save!” Loki said enraged. He did not like what he was hearing.

“Well, he tried to hijack the plane in mid-air, so I stopped him, I was in my homemade suit dangling from the outside of the plane, I was able to stop him and all, but the plane was falling so I had to make it crash in a civilian safe zone, which I did. And after I crashed, everything was on fire and I was leaving when I saw the vulture trying to steal a box of avenger stuff, so I fought him, he dug his metallic claws from his suit into my chest and I thought I was gonna die, I got out of that one. Then I saw his wing from his suit was going to explode and I tried to warn him, but it didn’t matter, it exploded I was caught in the blast then carried him away from the fire and webbed him on the spot so Happy would find him. I couldn’t let him die Loki, he was Liz’s dad!”

Loki was seeing red. He was enraged. He was clenching his jaw. How could someone do that to Peter! How could Peter had gone through all that. He looked at the teen on the bed and his expression softened. He sat next to him and hugged him. “You are too good for your own good.” He said, his chin resting on Peter’s head as he hugged him. “And this happened how long?”

“About two years ago.”

Oh for Odin’s sake he was a Child “I’m sorry Pete, sorry you had to go through that, no child should have gone through that trauma, I should know. Listen, you don’t have to tell me about what happened earlier if you don’t want to, you have shared enough today, and I don’t want you to feel worse for having to tell what caused you to freeze.”

Peter sighed. “No, it’s fine, I’ll be okay I just didn’t want to tell Tony, and then it became unimportant because it happened long ago, I didn’t want to bring it up to cause problems.” Peter put his head in his hands. “Shit. I will have to tell Tony tomorrow either way, so I might just tell it once.”

“I understand.”

“Friday tell Dad to come.”

“He is on his way.” Friday announced.

Tony and Stephen walked in. “I thought you were sleeping? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I was just talking to Loki. I was not actually asleep.” Peter said sheepishly. “But after talking to Loki, and the knowledge I won’t escape your interrogation tomorrow, I figured I’ll just explain myself now.”

Tony nodded, understanding. “Okay Underoos. Because you really worried us back there. Stephen said it was something to do related to the vulture? How so?”

Stephen sat next to Peter, giving him a pat on the back in support as he knew what happened. Peter had told them casually when they went to get sandwiches a few weeks ago.

“I may have not told you the whole truth about the vulture incident.” Peter blurted.

“What?” Tony gasped, frowning.

“So, after I left Liz at the homecoming dance, I tracked Toomes to a warehouse of sorts, there was no one there but him. There were a bunch of columns that were similar to the parking lot today, and he used his suit to break them. Andhekindathrewthebuildingonme.” Peter rambled quickly, he knew Tony would not like the news.

“What? Speak slower kid.”

“And he kinda threw the building on me.” Peter repeated. “But it’s fine, I got over it, mostly, it was just so similar but that had never happened before so don’t worry.”

“How-” Loki started.

“How did I survive? Basically, I had to lift the building off me, I thought I was gonna die but then I remembered something Dad had told me, and I did it.”

“Kid...” Tony whispered, not knowing what to say. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Didn’t want you to feel bad, Hap had told me you were feeling really guilty for taking my suit and all, I didn’t want you to feel worse. And I’m fine, so don’t worry. It actually is a good anecdote I can tell MJ and Ned at some point.” Peter tried to joke. Keyword: Tried.

“Oh, kid.” Tony engulfed him in a hug. “I love you. You are the greatest kid.” He hugged him tighter before he ended the hug and looked at Peter. “But don’t ever hide things from me ever again. You are going to give me a heart attack at some point.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

“How come Stephen knew?” Tony suddenly said.

“He told me casually once when we got sandwiches at Delmar’s. He said it very summarised as he ate his food, I thought it was basic knowledge until now.” Stephen arched an eyebrow at Peter.

“I’m glad everything is sorted out and all,” Loki started, interrupting the conversation. “But can I kill this vulture guy”

“No.” Peter told him.

“C’mon, he deserves it.” Loki conjured a blade.

“No Loki.” Stephen said.

“Okay, then can I go and snap his neck?”

“No Loki, that’s still murder.” Tony said.

“Fine, then what if I poke him very carefully with my dagger?”

“No!” Stephen, Tony and Peter said at the same time, they were smiling at Loki’s attempts to get them to say yes to murder.

“But-”

“No.”

Loki then flopped dramatically to the bed face down, he groaned in annoyance into the bed then lifted his head. “You guys are killing me, you know? It’s No fun.”

Chapter Text

"Peter, is everything packed up yet? We have to leave in ten minutes, kid!" Tony yelled across the room to Peter who was shoving clothes into his suitcase.

It was the day they were heading to Malibu for the entire week. Stephen and Tony had already packed everything and were waiting for Peter, who left packing for last minute.

"I don't understand why I have to hurry, we could always ask Stephen to portal us to your house, dad."

"He has a point, you know." Loki added. He was sitting in a couch, watching everything unfold.

"Sorry, can't portal there." Stephen said.

"Hmm." Loki suspiciously stared at Stephen. "It’s usually Tony who is against the portal stuff."

"Yeah well, we have to use the jet, take our time to get there." Stephen started saying.

"Yeah, yeah, and I have people there at the moment finishing some last-minute stuff." Tony interrupted.

"We could always portal later." Peter voiced his thoughts as he tried to close his bag. "That way we would be at the time you want to arrive without the journey of waiting 6 and a half hours on a plane."

"Peter Man has a point. Why don't you leave later with the portal thing?" Loki arched his eyebrows.

"Because we want to leave you as soon as possible." Tony joked.

Loki only shrugged.

"Okay, I'm ready, let’s go." Peter said as he started to carry four big bags.

"You want some help with that?" Stephen asked.

"Nah, this is nothing. Remember, I got a cargo container thrown at me by Steve once, and a building. This feels like carrying feathers."

"Don't remind me." Tony sighed, wincing at the thoughts of having his kid go through that.

"Sorry."

"We are going to be late, we have to go now." Stephen reminded them.

Stephen, Tony and Peter carried their bags to the jet that was waiting for them outside the compound in the jet area.

They went inside, saying their goodbyes to the avengers who had shown up last minute and were watching them leave. Rhodey was there. As were Bucky, Loki, Thor and Bruce.

Peter sat next to a window, on a fancy couch-like chair at the front. Meanwhile Stephen and Tony sat down at a big leather couch at the back, who was next to another couch in L shape form. At the other side of the inside of the jet, there was a bar with stools in which Tony explicitly told Peter he should stay away from there.

The self-pilot jet started taking off and Peter watched amazed through the window. He had only travelled by air two times, and one was technically in a spaceship, so it didn't count.

He really loved the view.

"Peter, we are playing Uno. Do you want to join us?" Stephen asked.

"Yes!" Peter exclaimed, getting up from his seat and going to the back where his dad and Stephen were.

"Alright, shuffle the cards, 7 each." Tony handed Peter the cards.

-

They played for about an hour, Peter winning most times, with Stephen winning with the second most wins, before the called it a day with the cards. Tony needed to rest from it as every time he would get close to winning Peter would put a +4 card. He really was a little shit.

After playing they talked for a while and Peter ended up falling asleep with his head on Tony's shoulder, using it as a pillow. Stephen thought it was adorable and took a picture before Tony could complain. Not that he would, he actually asked his boyfriend to send him the picture.

After that, the ride was uneventful and they got to Malibu in no time.

Peter woke up as they were landing and started getting his stuff ready to leave. They had arrived at the airport since Tony hadn't built a place for the jets in his beach house, yet. They took one of Tony's cars he had there and drove towards his house. Tony driving, Stephen at the passenger’s seat and Peter was at the back recording the whole thing for a vlog. Both Stephen and Tony thought it was adorable and the conversation shifted to Tony telling him how Peter blogged the whole airport fight back when the Rogue Avengers were wanted criminals. Stephen proceeded to ask Peter to show him the video someday and he agreed.

They arrived at Tony's beach house and Peter was amazed. They were entering the garage and he could see a glimpse of the house, it was enormous, on top of a cliff, in a desolated area with a fantastic view of the sea. Peter didn't know how many floors it had but it certainly looked more than four. It was practically a mansion; the mansion of mansions and Peter couldn't wait to get inside. Everything surrounding it was green, some palm trees and a lot of grass. Peter found it very different from what he was used to. He couldn't hear any cars or people, the city in general, as was usual, only animals chirping and the sea waves. And considering he had enhanced hearing and he couldn't hear another car or people, they were a long way from the city. He loved it.

They got out of the car and Tony walked towards the door, motioning Peter to follow as he stood in the same place looking at the mansion.

They got inside and Peter couldn't see the end, there were hallways leading to other hallways and a bunch of doors he would definitely explore later. A spiral staircase was in the middle of the room, next to the wall and at the front Peter could see the wall that faced the ocean was made of mostly glass, polarized and beautiful.

"Do you like it, kid? I tried to keep it the same model before it blew up, except now I have put in safety warnings." Tony asked, putting a hand on Peter's shoulder as he was showing him around.

"It's amazing! This is," Peter paused looking around, "the best house I have ever been in, and probably that I ever will."

Stephen smiled softly. "Tony put a lot of thought into this, especially the security, best work of his so far."

"That’s true!" Tony smiled. "everything that isn't glass has a metal interior, that is then covered by the material you are seeing. And in case of attack everything that is glass has nanotechnology in them, like my suit, shielding them from blasts. I agree, it's my best work yet."

Tony then received a message and he quickly glanced as his phone, then looked at Stephen and gave him a nod.

"Hey, kid? Why don't you go to your room and familiarise yourself with the place?" Tony put his phone away. "I hope you like the decorations I chose for you."

"I have my own room?"

"Yeah? Where do you think you would be staying? The couch?"

"I just thought I would be staying in a guest room or something. Not, not my own room in a freaking mansion!"

"Nah, you are practically family and family have their own rooms. Now go, it's upstairs, down the hall, third door to your left."

"Thanks, dad!"

"And Tony uploaded Friday here so if you get lost you can ask her to help you!" Stephen called out as Peter was walking upstairs.

_____

Peter ran up the stairs and eventually found his room, if Friday helped him, who knew. He entered the room and when he saw who was in it, he screamed. He let all of his stuff he was carrying fell and ran to his aunt.

"May!" Peter yelled as he ran to hug her. She was sitting on his bed when he walked in. "Wh-what are you doing here? I thought you couldn't take time off until August."

May hugged him back. "That's what was supposedly to happen, but I got early break, and when Tony found out he decided to make it a surprise and invited me here. I just arrived around 10 minutes ago."

"So that’s why he wanted to leave on the jet. He was making time for you to arrive." Peter said with a huge grin in his face. "I missed you so much, May."

"I bet." She said warmly, "if you keep hugging me this tight, you'll end up breaking something." she half joked.

"Oh shit, sorry." He hugged her more carefully, still not letting her go for a few seconds before breaking the hug. "So, what do you think of the place? I barely saw it but it's awesome, right?"

"It's amazing. I can't believe we are actually staying here." May laughed. "If my past self would have been told this was going to happen, I wouldn't believe it. Not even if I saved all my paychecks for a year would I ever be to afford something like this to stay the night." She thought out loud.

"But you are here." Peter said.

"True." May said with a smile as she looked at her nephew. "I larb you."

"I larb you too."

"Peter, Tony is requesting both of you to head to the dining room." Friday announced over the speakers.

"We'll be right there." Peter told the AI. "But can you please show us where that is? This place is kind of big."

"Sure thing, Peter."

They followed Friday's instructions and found the dining room, Stephen and Tony had already taken care of the food which was now laying on the table. They had ordered the delivery shortly before arriving and everything was ready for dinner.

The four sat down at the table, Stephen next to Tony, and Peter facing Tony, and next to May. They served themselves food and started doing small talk.

“So, Peter, what have I missed while I was gone? Anything interesting?” She smiled at Peter.

“Not much, two weeks after you left my school had a Field Trip to the compound, and it was not as enjoyable as one would think to have your whole class in your house.” Peter laughed, getting another bite of his food.