Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Damn if Tony Stark wasn’t going to be waiting on Titan when his son came back, wringing his hands anxiously as he waited for him (and the guardian-whatevers, but he didn’t really care about them) to rematerialize.  Unfortunately, just as the kid frequently woke up late and got to school late, he came back from the dead late too. It was almost a full minute after the last of the space-raccoon’s posse had appeared that Peter came stumbling back into existence, his eyes widening as he spotted Tony.

    “Oh my God,” he whispered.  “Mr. Stark, I’m back.”

    Tony already had his arms wrapped around the kid, feeling him solid and breathing and not-quite-warm-enough-because-nonexistent-thermoregulation-abilities-but-fuck-it-still- alive.   And he wanted to tell this silly, self-sacrificing, genius, optimistic, precious boy how much he’d come to mean to him, how he thought of him like his own and that he regretted all the times he’d been too hard on him and that he was going to do everything in his power to always be there for Peter and that furthermore, Peter would always be there and be safe whether he liked it or not, but none of this would fit past the lump in his throat.  So instead, all he said was, “hi back, I’m dad.”

    And as he felt Peter’s arms tighten even further around him and his breath hitch in a way that showed he understood the implications of that statement and all he carried with it, it was enough.  Because Tony would make damn sure that he had all the time in the world to tell him everything else.

Chapter Text

Peter was awestruck by Wakanda, where they’d landed the spaceship, Guardians in tow, to pick up the other Avengers.  Quill had made them stop on Vormir first to pick up Gamorra’s body, except they hadn’t found a body- it turns out that when the soul stone’s deaths were reversed, so was the death of the one who had been sacrificed to get it.  So now she and Quill were making out rather graphically in some shadowy corner. And okay, Peter might have a little crush on MJ and might also want to kiss her like that, but dear Thor, he didn’t want to see those two doing it, and he was quite eager for them to get their own spaceship and go back to doing whatever it is they did in their daily lives.  So he kept his eyes focused on the skyline of the magnificent African nation, and there was plenty to see to distract him anyway- it was a wonder.   In the few hours it had taken them to get home (some of which they didn’t even have wifi), Tony had already secured pardons for the rogue Avengers, which was made easier by the fact that they had helped in defeating Thanos.  

    There was a slight snag hit by the fact that a few passerby swore they had seen the newly-resurrected President Trump (ugh- the title still sent shivers down Peter’s spine) thrown out the 47th story window of his tower by Steve Rogers before said man hopped back into a fancy hovercraft piloted by the king of Wakanda, but there was no footage to back that up (damn, Peter adored Pepper), so by the time the spaceship touched earth, they could bring the other Avengers back to Stark Tower (the sale hadn’t gone through in the end, with arc reactors being extremely difficult to upkeep unless you had the patented knowledge of how they worked) no holds barred.  Peter took a deep breath- he couldn’t believe he was about to meet the other Avengers!  Well, he’d met them, of course, but now he was about to meet them as a member of the team, which was super awesome, even if he was going to be the only Avenger with a curfew.

    More importantly, he was about to meet them as Peter Parker.  While he could still keep his secret identity, at least for the time being, from the world at large, there was going to be no hiding it from his teammates.  Besides, Bucky already knew, having met him in the soul stone. And Bucky was cool, even if he had been kinda salty that Peter had been able to block his punch so easily during the airport fight.  And he was a little wary of meeting The Falcon, who had called him “a little asshole” in an interview once. Ironically, he liked Stark’s mild-mannered personal intern (and yes, he was officially a science intern now too, had been for a while now, since Mr. Stark had been mind-boggled by his intelligence as they talked suit upgrades one day).  He’d only met him as Peter once, when the fugitive had made a quick detour to the tower to pick up his and Steve’s stuff from their old rooms under-the-radar, which Tony had reluctantly allowed.

    They were led into the palace by a squadron of awesomely-dressed soldiers, and damn Mr. Stark for not telling him he didn’t have to bow to King T’Challa (hey, Tony loved his kid and wanted to protect him; he never said he was going to stop messing with him).  But then there were like, all of the Avengers.   At once.  And none of them were trying to attack him.  And Vision was there- wait, Vision?

    “He really wasn’t that difficult to fix,” Shuri seemed to read his thoughts, rolling her eyes.  “Wanda White girl should have brought him to me before she started wailing like the world had just ended again.”

    The Scarlet Witch didn’t seem bothered by the gentle jab; and why should she, when she had her Android boyfriend back?

    “You know Vis, I think you might just be more attractive without the stone,” Tony mused, laughing slightly.

    “Oh my god… it’s Thor and Bruce Banner!” Peter squeaked, suddenly spotting the two towards the back.  “I’m meeting an Asgardian god and the world’s most awesome scientist!” Bruce absolutely lit up at the non-Hulk related praise, while Tony shot his kid a faux-hurt look.

    “I thought I was your favorite scientist,” he declared, hand splayed dramatically over the arc reactor in his chest.

    “You’re an engineer,” Peter pointed out.  And damn- kid had a point.

    “Uh, Tony?” Nat was the first to break the silence.  “Who’s this?”

    “Oh, meet Spiderman, the newest Avenger,” Tony declared.  “He’s my favorite, so if you got a problem with him, you got a problem with me.”  Peter looked up at his mentor in awe, blushing vividly.

    None of the others could really blame Tony- kid was adorable.  Too adorable, really…

    “This is Spiderman?” Nat asked incredulously, narrowing her eyes.  “He’s like, twelve!”

    “Hey!” Peter squeaked indignantly, his voice cracking at a rather inconvenient time.  “I’ll be seventeen in a few months! And my friend MJ says you were cuter as a redhead, by the way,” he mumbled petulantly, looking up from his phone.

    “Oh my word,” Steve whispered, face white.  “He’s a kid, like an honest-to-goodness kid.  I can’t believe I dropped an airport ramp on this baby bunny…”

    “Hey!” Peter objected again, not liking that all of his new teammates were thinking of him as young and cute.   “I’m not a baby!”

    Tony, meanwhile, was glaring at Steve like he regretted getting him pardoned.  “Excuse me, you did what?!” He practically screamed, firing up the repulses in his suit.  Peter grabbed him by the arm.

    “It’s okay dad!” He interjected quickly, not realizing that the term had slipped out (although it did wonders for stopping Tony in his track).  “I’m really strong, and it wasn’t as bad as the time The Vulture dropped a building on me.”

    “What?!” Iron Man gasped again, looking to be on the verge of another heart attack.  The other Avengers were somewhat surprised, having never seen him show this much outright concern or affection for another human being, not to mention the fact that the kid had called him dad.

    “It may not have been a building, but I still regret it,” Steve said, sighing deeply.  “Although, I thought you were at least old enough to vote, kid, geez…”

    “It’s fine,” Peter shrugged.  “I mean, it’s not like there was a plane attached to it or anything.  That bitch empty.”

    Everyone else looked confused, except for Shuri, who loudly called out “YEET!”  T’Challa put his head in his hands.

    “Oh dear ancestors help me,” he mumbled dejectedly.  “There’s another one…”

    The ancestors did not intervene, and Peter and Shuri began what blossomed quite quickly into a beautiful friendship of the strongest kind- that formed on memes and vines.

Chapter Text

Tony woke up sweating, biting back a scream so as not to wake Pepper- she lost enough sleep as it was, running his company and in general just being a total badass.  He’d had another nightmare- Peter’s body had been disintegrating in his arms again. His son’s body had been disintegrating in his arms again.  He hadn’t been sleeping well, even after they defeated Thanos and got Peter and the other half of the universe back (and yes, their importance did fall in that order to Tony, thank you).  Luckily, Peter and May lived at the compound now (which was back in Stark towers, since the sale had fallen through and it was easier for Avenger business to be in the city anyway).

He, May, and Pepper were basically Peter’s co-parenting team at this point, and the aunt and nephew spent so much time at the compound that Tony pointed out it seemed pointless for May to keep paying rent when they had so much room at the tower.  And maybe May would have argued a little bit more if she hadn’t seen right through the excuse, known that Tony desperately needed to have Peter closer to him after everything that happened. She had similar sentiments, so living in the tower it was.

Peter’s suite was down the hall from Tony’s, and he made his way there on bare feet.  The wooden floors weren’t too cold though, not with how warm Tony kept the tower. Poor Peter couldn’t thermoregulate, so he was almost always chilly, even in the middle of the summer.  The other Avengers might half-heartedly gripe about the fact that the temperature in the penthouse was never less than 80 degrees, but they didn’t truly mind, not with how much they all loved Peter as well.

Reaching Pete’s door, Tony slumped against the wall next to it, heart beating wildly.  “Fri, pull up Peter’s vitals and the security footage from his room, please,” he nearly begged, not wanting to open the door and risk waking him.  It was alright here, though, as his room was soundproof to keep out input that might overload his enhanced senses.

“Peter’s vitals appear to be normal and he is resting comfortably,” the AI informed him as she projected the charts with his vital signs onto one half of the wall and the footage of his room to the other.  Tony didn’t want to violate the kid’s privacy- the cameras were only there in case the worst happened and their security was compromised and, God forbid, his kid was abducted or something. But right now he just needed to see Peter, see him breathing and solid and alive.   And he was- on the side of the king bed facing the door, one arm draped over the edge, a Stark Industries hoodie layered over his pajamas.  He was snuggled deep under the red and blue comforter, a pile of fluffy throw blankets on top adding extra warmth, and he snored slightly, drooling on the Iron Man plushie he had snuggled in the crook of his shoulder.

“Oh, come on kiddo,” Tony laughed lightly, trying to mask his severe anxiety with humor, even though he was the only one around to witness it.  He knew there was no chance he’d be able to get back to sleep now, so he just settled in to watch as the sixteen-year-old slept on, his dreams blessedly peaceful.  His nightmares, unlike Tony’s, had decreased in frequency over the last few weeks since Thanos was defeated. He was sleeping peacefully, he was alive, he wasn’t…

Except then he was, a flashback overtaking the man just as he tried to calm down.  Peter was crumbling, on the ground, apologizing for dying, for fuck’s sake, because he knew Tony would feel bad about.  And Tony knew he deserved to feel bad about it, didn’t deserve the joy that this wonderful kid brought into his life, didn’t deserve…

The hallway steadily came back into focus as the door slid silently open and the padding of slippered feet was heard for just a second before there was another body next to him, a head of brown curls settling into his lap as the blanket-wrapped teen snuggled up against him.

“Sorry underoos,” Tony gasped, his breathing calming down rapidly now that the kid was there, right next to him and solid and comforting.  “Did I wake you- do I need to update the soundproofing on your room?”

“Nope,” Peter mumbled sleepily.  “Didn’t hear anything. Jus’ woke up and felt like something was wrong.  You okay?”

“Yeah,” Tony exhaled shakily.  “I’m fine.” And he really was doing a lot better, for now, as his left hand automatically reached over to card through the teenager’s hair.  “Just couldn’t sleep.”

“Mmph,” Peter huffed as his eyelids closed again.  “You nee’ sleep.”

“You sure are one to talk, Spiderman,” the older man laughed.  “Out patrolling half the night, most days.”

“‘S summer,” Peter defended.  “C’n sleep whenever.”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed, hand moving down to rub soothing circles against Peter’s back that probably did more for him than for the kid.  “I suppose you’re right.”

“Course I am,” the superteen slurred, barely awake.  “Smart n’ stuff, ‘member?”

“Yeah kiddo,” Tony chuckled.  “How could I forget? You’re smarter than me, for sure.  Maybe even me and Bruce put together.”

If Peter hadn’t already drifted off to sleep, the high praise surely would have left him blushing and squeaking out a denial- he was so easy to render speechless, their kid.  Caught up in fond musings, Tony didn’t even realised when he himself fell into the comforting embrace of a dreamless slumber.

And that was how Pepper found them the next morning, out like lights and snuggled up together in the hallway, Peter’s thick comforter bunched around them as they breathed in sync, each snoring just a little.  Under the blankets, Peter’s Iron Man plushie could be seen poking out just slightly as he cradled it in one arm. The CEO of Stark Industries smiled widely.

“Friday, take a picture of this,” she requested softly.  

The soft Irish voice that responded was clearly amused as she responded.  “I already did, Boss lady. Several thousand, in fact- shall I send them to your computer?”

“Please do,” Pepper agreed.  “You know the folder.”

“8,979 photos sent to the ‘My boys’ folder on Pepper’s StarkCloud drive,” FRIDAY responded.  “Don’t forget that you have a meeting with President Michelle Obama at nine (if Captain America dropped Trump from the window of his own tower right as he came back from dust, nobody complained, and no security footage was ever found to prove what had happened).”

“Lovely,” the redhead hummed.  “Fri, be a dear and have Anna (the smart closet- Anna the armoire) pull out those pink Louboutins pumps, would you?  And a floral-print dress of some sort; we always have a nice breakfast with these morning meetings.”

“Already done,” Friday announced.  “Anna knows your schedule and had already completed the task.”

“And I thought my fiancé was crazy for designing me a sentient wardrobe,” Pepper snickered to herself, leaning down carefully to plant a kiss on the foreheads of her fiancé and the boy who might as well be her son.  On an impulse, she cleared Tony’s schedule for the day; he deserved some time to laze around with Pete and the other Avengers, fighting over what to watch on Netflix. All was as it should be.

Chapter Text

Clint and Peter had a prank war going on; it had started when Natasha had casually mentioned that (after her, of course) Peter was the stealthiest among them.

“Stealthier than me? No way- I’m hurt, Nat, truly!” The archer had declared.  Black widow rolled her eyes.

“I’m just saying that Baby Avenger-” she paused for a moment as Peter squawked his ever-present protests to the name they’d all given him, “has the spider senses or whatever, and he’s super fast and light on his feet.  He’s superhuman and a fellow spider, Clint, don’t take it personally,” she’d said.  

“Oh, I am absolutely taking it personally,” Clint grumbled.  “And you know what? I’m also gonna prove that I’m the stealthiest- after you, of course,” he backtracked when Natasha glared at him.

That was all he had time to say at the moment, as he was jumped by a spider-teen, who clung to his back and yelled “BOO!” as Hawkeye yelped in surprise.

“Fuck, kid!” He swore, ignoring Tony’s call of ‘language!’ (And honestly, how ironic…).  “You trying to give me a heart attack? My wife will kill me if I don’t come back in one piece on Monday.”  Then he seemed to realise what he’d basically just admitted, and he threw his hands up angrily.

“Okay, this one doesn’t count- Nat was distracting me.  And my hearing aid volume wasn’t all the way up. Starting now, I’m gonna prove to you all that I’m the second-stealthiest Avenger.  Now get off me, Baby Avenger.”

“I don’t like that name, so maybe I’ll just stay on here,” Peter declared haughtily, nose in the air.  Nat rolled her eyes at him fondly.

“You’re stuck again, aren’t you?” She asked.  

The teenager blushed and looked down in embarrassment.  “Yeah…” he eventually mumbled.

“Alright, itsy bitsy.  I’ll go get Thor. I’d tell you to hang tight, but…”

“I don’t like that nickname either!” He called after the ex-assassin as she went to get the only other Avenger (besides Peter, who was indisposed at the moment) who was strong enough to get the little spider-teen off of something when he was well and truly stuck.

From then on, the other Avengers knew to expect chaos whenever Clint was visiting them in the tower, as both he and Peter snuck around, ready to scare the shit out of each other at every opportunity.  After a tough morning training session, Clint walked into the sauna to find an upside-down Spider-Man hanging from the ceiling. He popped into the walk-in fridge for a yogurt to find a shivering Peter holding the last one, knocking a whole rack of cookie dough down as he stumbled back in surprise (that one made Tony mad- or rather, worried- as he could be heard throughout the penthouse yelling “for God’s sake, Peter, you can’t thermoregulate!”).  He went to shoot an arrow at the target, and instead of hearing the satisfying thwack! of the head as it hit the bullseye, he looked up to see Baby Avenger just chilling on top of the target, holding the arrow with a satisfied smirk on his unmasked face.  He (predictably) blamed all these incidents on his hearing aids (nevermind that that was BS, because Tony designed them).  But there was no hiding that he hadn’t been able to sneak up on Peter and his damn super-hearing.  The kid would regularly turn towards the vents or into whatever corner he was hiding and just go “hey Clint,” or “‘sup, Hawks?” without even looking up from his phone.

“That doesn’t speak to my stealth ability- you have enhanced senses,” he’d grumbled.  But it didn’t change the fact that everyone knew that Peter was winning.

The morning after a particularly spectacular failure that involved him being nearly decapitated by his own malfunctioning glitter canon (and damn the kid for saving him; death would have been easier on his ego), Hawkeye stumbled blearily towards the kitchen as Peter was making himself a bowl of yogurt with Clint’s granola.  Surprisingly, Tony was up as well, transferring a giant pile of scrambled eggs from a frying pan to Peter’s plate.  Clint turned up his hearing aids.

“I can’t believe they’re making you do decathlon practice in the summer and twice a week, too?  What is this shi—take mushrooms,” Tony quickly corrected himself, ruffling Peter’s curls as the teen rolled his eyes.

“I know, but MJ wants us to be prepared,” Peter mumbled around a bite of peanut butter and Nutella toast, shrugging.  “She’s a real task master.”

“No luck on making her your taskmaster though, huh?” Stark teased, and Clint watched in satisfaction as the kid’s face went red.  Peter clearly knew he was there even if Tony didn’t as he shot his best attempt at a venomous glare in the archer’s direction (really, it was about as intimidating- and adorable- as an angry puppy, but A for effort, Clint supposed).

“Don’ wanna talk about it,” Chick (and yes, they all had a nickname for him besides ‘Baby Avenger’ and most of them multiple) stammered.

“Alright, message received,” Tony laughed, sounding far too eager for 8 in the morning and only on his second cup of coffee.  “C’mon, I’ll drive you to school.”

“It’s fine Tony (Peter still occasionally called him ‘dad’ when he was exhausted or distracted, and Tony wished he’d do it more, but he was fine waiting for Peter to get more comfortable.  At least he’d gotten him to stop calling him ‘Mr. Stark.’). I can swing there; I don’t wanna make trouble for you.”

“Underoos, how many times have I told you you’re never any trouble?  It’s fine; I wanna drive you to school.” Peter shrugged and bit back a shy smile as he followed his mentor out to the elevator.  Clint and the others knew, of course, that Tony still had terrible separation anxiety from Peter after the events of Titan and the soul stone, but he’d done a good job at keeping it from the teen, wanting him to have his own life without feeling guilty about it.  And okay, he had multiple trackers on the kid and had made Peter a third suit that could spring out of a special StarkWatch that had been modified with an arc reactor, but those were just necessary precautions according to Tony.  He wasn’t a helicopter parent, or so he swore (futilely) to the rest of them again and again.  But he definitely wanted to take his kid to school to spend time with him, completely independent of the badly-hidden fear that Peter would disappear again that also factored into the offer.

“Alright- thanks Tony,” Peter said fondly as his mentor put an arm around his shoulders.  Clint was just disappointed that he couldn’t get more stealth-prancing in today. Oh well- he probably should use this time to plan his next assault anyway, seeing as the others had all gone so terribly.

Tony was back not even an hour later, by which point the rest of the Avengers had gradually poured out for breakfast.

“Ugh, can you two lovebirds please cool it in my kitchen?” He groaned at Steve and Bucky, who were exchanging soft kisses between glasses of orange juice.

“Maybe, if you make us some of those eggs like you always do for Peter,” Steve teased, only to be met by silence.

“Tony?” He asked gently- they’d been getting along okay lately (Peter’s bubbly presence and endless kindness towards everyone definitely helped with that), so he didn’t see any reason for the man to be ignoring him.  Then there was the sound of metal clattering against wood as keys hit the floor. The team looked up to see their (unofficial) leader’s eyes glazed over, his breathing rapid as he was lost in a flashback.

“Another panic attack.” Vision confirmed what they already knew as Tony’s soft cries of “Peter, no!” and “please, take me instead!” rang throughout the kitchen.

“Come on Tones, just breath,” Wanda tried coaching him with some of the techniques that had helped with her own panic attacks after the event in Nigeria, but Tony flinched back at her touch, his mind still stuck on Titan and his eyes scanning for Peter, who wasn’t there.

“We’re gonna have to go get him,” Rhodey sighed, knowing all too well that only having the kid’s arms around him would be able to bring him out of this.

“I’ll go,” Clint volunteered, already reaching for the quintjet keys.  The others looked at him.

“Clint, now is not the time for this stupid prank war,” Nat warned him, fire in her eyes.  He looked back at her.

“I know it isn’t; I’m going to go right there as fast as I can and pick him up,” he promised.  And he was being sincere.  He just… planned on making a stealthy entrance, that was all.

The quintjet was fast, and he was at Peter’s school in a matter of minutes.  He just needed to get inside. And it wasn’t like he could just walk right in, right?  Security and all that (never mind that he was on the- now very long- list of Peter’s emergency contacts; he conveniently forgot that bit).  Besides, it was summer, so the receptionist might be anywhere at this point.  It would be faster to take the vents to the library, where Baby Avenger would be studying with his team.  And if the vents just might offer a stealthy point of entry… well, that was simply convenience.

When he got to the library and peeked through, he was pleased to see that Pete was wearing his noise cancelling headphones and talking to his teammates, who were fairly loud for a bunch of studious STEM-type nerds.  Good- if he was very quiet, he might have a chance to sneak up on the kid.

He shot one of his special whisper-silent arrows (tech courtesy of Tony and Pete, ironically enough) at the carpeting near the team, a bit of 1200 lb reel fishing line attached to it.  So far, so good. He slid down rapidly, tapping Peter on the shoulder. Unfortunately, he forgot to account for the fact that while Peter was young and adorable and optimistic and seemed quite innocent most of the time, he was still a superhero and he’d still been through rather a lot and had his own demons just like the rest of them.  So when he felt his spidey senses go off right before someone tapped him on the shoulder, his instincts reacted before his brain could remind him just who he was with, and Clint found himself flat on his back with Spider-baby’s elbow jammed into his shoulder plexus before he even knew what was happening.  

“What the fuck?!” One kid yelled out.  “Penis Parker, did you just take down a fucking Avenger!”

Despite the fact that breathing was painful at the moment (even after Peter realised who he had pinned and let up on his grip; he was still fairly sure a couple of his ribs were already broken), he felt his gut revolt in anger that someone had dared use such an epithet towards his adopted nephew.

“What did you just call him?!” He asked, his voice dangerous.  Peter scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“Don’t worry about it,” he muttered, hand on Clint’s chest to hold the archer back so he wouldn’t go rushing at the teenager.  “That’s just Flash. He does that kind of stuff all the time.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Clint growled.  But the others on the team were still staring at them. Even Ned was slack-jawed.  Only a girl at the head of the table who Clint knew from Peter’s descriptions to be MJ seemed unaffected, her face serene as she penciled rapidly in a sketchbook.

“Well it’s okay, because I can handle myself,” Peter asserted.  “That’s why you guys were giving me self-defense lessons, right?”  It was clearly a leading question, an excuse made in the spur of the moment to cover for his shocking newfound athletic ability, and Clint forgot about the bully (for now) as he scrambled to play along.

“Oh yeah, right,” he muttered.  “Good job kiddo; you passed the test.  Anyway, sorry to interrupt you practice, but you’re needed at home.  We have a bit of a sticky situation.” That was there code-word for any non-life-threatening issue that required Spiderman (or simply Peter) to resolve, so the teenager had his back back over one shoulder in an instant.  

“I’m coming,” he responded immediately.  “Jet parked outside?”

“Yep,” Clint affirmed.  And then, just because all the kids were staring at them like they couldn’t believe that Peter would know an Avenger, despite the fact that he knew that the kid had told at least his friends about the Stark Internship, he clapped a (sore, now…) arm on Peter’s shoulder.  “Now c’mon, Pete. Stark needs the personal aid of his best intern.”  Jaws dropped.

“Okay, practice dismissed,” MJ broke the awed silence.  “Ned, come on loser. Let’s tag along with Peter and see what’s up.”

“You can’t…” Hawkeye began, but she just raised her eyebrow at him.  Michelle Jones was proof that you could get pretty far in the world on just attitude alone, and they didn’t really have time to argue with her at the moment.

“Ugh, fine,” he capitulated, as MJ fell into step behind them, an uncharacteristically-silent Ned in tow.  

“So,” the girl broke in, as if the situation were no more out of the ordinary than a stroll through Central Park.  “Is this some Spiderman stuff, or…”

It was Peter’s turn to feel his jaw drop as he looked at her in shock.  “How…” he began, but the decathlon team captain just rolled her eyes at him.

“You know, for a genius, you’re really fucking stupid sometimes,” she sighed.  “It was pretty obvious, really. You’re just lucky that everybody else in this school is even dumber than you are or your little secret would be all over the place.”

“Trying not to be offended by that, but okay,” Peter mumbled to himself, turning to Clint.  “So, what’s the issue?”

“Tony’s having a panic attack, and nobody else can bring him out of it,” Hawkeye sighed out loud as he relayed the information to Peter in ASL to keep it private..

“Oh,” Peter furrowed his brow in concern and started signing back.  “Does he have those a lot? I brought him out of one the other day, but he told me that they were infrequent.”

“I think he’s lying to you, kiddo,” Clint sighed.  “He was really fucking torn up when you… well…”

Peter nodded his understanding before turning his eyes to his watch.  “Karen?” He asked.

“Yes Peter?” The voice of the AI rang out, and even MJ looked impressed.

“Contact FRIDAY and get me an update on Tony.  And have her notify me directly the next time he’s having this problem,” he ordered as they all stepped into the jet.”

“Mr. Stark’s blood pressure is reaching dangerous levels, and he does not appear to be aware of his surroundings.”  This time it was FRIDAY’s soft Irish lilt that came through the watch, Karen having patched her through. “I will notify you immediately should something like this happen again.”

“Thanks.  I could have swung home by now,” Peter muttered, worried for Tony and angry that his mentor was so quick to reject any help for his own problems while being so extremely overprotective of he himself.  “Some days I think dum-E is smarter than he is.”

“Agreed,” Friday chimed, although it was easy to detect worry in the AI’s voice as well.  MJ looked around curiously; this was some advanced technology.

The quintjet landed on the roof of the penthouse, and Peter rounded up his two friends.  “This is kind of a family matter, so why don’t you two go program your fingerprints into the door of my room.  Karen, light the path for them and allow them to gain thumbprint access to my quarters.”

“Yes Peter,” she agreed, and Peter rushed into the kitchen, putting on a burst of superspeed that left Clint far behind, even as he too hurried along.

Tony was huddled in a corner, still caught up in a waking nightmare of his own mind’s creation.  All in all, it had only been about fifteen minutes since Clint had left to get Peter, but that seemed an eternity for Tony when he was watching Peter die again and again, when he feared that getting him back had just been a cruel dream.

“Hey,” Peter murmured gently, putting his hands on his mentor’s shoulders.  “Come on Tony; I’m here. I’m alive. Just take a deep breath in, alright? That’s great.  Now exhale. In, out. You’re doing great dad,” he praised as the fog in Tony’s eyes slowly cleared and he became gradually more aware of what was happening, of the fact that Peter was alive and holding on to him, keeping him grounded.  

“His vital signs are returning to within a normal range and his breathing is calming,” FRIDAY chimed in from above them, and Peter smiled.  

“You alright?” He asked Tony, who nodded slowly.

“Yeah,” he sighed, exhaling shakily.  “Yeah, I’m alright. Geez kid, you didn’t need to come all the way down here.  I’m sorry I-”

“It’s fine,” Peter cut him off.  “You’re never a burden, dad, and you’ve done a lot for me.  I’m more than glad to help you out.”

“Thanks kiddo…” Tony began.  Then, on an impulse. “I… I really like it when you call me dad.”

“I can do it more then,” Peter agreed readily, smiling brilliantly in the way Tony would never admit out loud (but everyone already knew) made his insides turn to mush.  “Because I like calling you dad too.”

Tony was feeling pretty damn good for a man who’d been having a panic attack not five minutes earlier.  He looked with fond pride at his son, who was chewing his lip.

“So uh… MJ figured out I’m Spiderman because she’s ridiculously smart and sneaky, and she’s somehow talked her and Ned’s way into my room…”

The billionaire laughed.  “That’s fine kid. Why don’t you go hang out with them for a while, and then when Pepper and your Aunt May get home we can all order Thai food and have a movie night?”

“Sweet!” Peter agreed readily, brightening at the prospect of his favourite take-out and a Lord of the Rings marathon after he and Ned coerced MJ into an afternoon of building his new lego Ewok village.  “Thanks dad- love you!”

Tony leaned against the counter and finished catching his breath as he watched his kid speed his way towards his room.  “I love you too kid,” he called. “And don’t run with socks on!”

A muffled thump and an “I’m okay!” told him that Peter hadn’t heeded his advice, so he rolled his eyes and went to check on his absolute (perfect) trainwreck of a son.  Everything was how it should be, at least for now.

Chapter Text

The others said Tony was being overprotective when he updated Karen (without Peter’s knowledge, so he couldn’t hack his way out of it) to let him know if Peter so much as stubbed his toe while out on patrol.  But he was glad he did it, especially one Saturday night when he and Pepper were woken up by FRIDAY’s voice.

“Boss, Karen has alerted me that we have a Code Burnt Orange situation with Peter,” she announced, sounding very worried.  On the color system Tony designed to rate Peter’s injuries (which started from pastel-green ‘minor toe stubbing’- and yes, there was a more severe rating for ‘severe toe stubbing’- all the way to ‘maroon, fatal without immediate care’), Burnt Orange was the third worst shade in the second-most severe color category (the worst being red).  He needed to get to Peter immediately, and he pressed the arc reactor in his chest as his suit sprang to life around him.

“What happened?” He asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

Meanwhile….

“So, what were you doing trying to kick that poor kitten?” He asked the angry man in the black ski mask.  “What did it ever do to you?”

“It was in my way,” he muttered, finding this bug-vigilante far too chatty for his taste.  He was just trying to rob a bank, honestly…

“Maybe you were in its way,” Peter fired back, shooting a web that the man just barely dodged.  “Ever think of that, Mr. Bank-robber man? Huh?”

“You know, when my colleagues mentioned Spiderman, they didn’t quite capture how annoying you were,” the robber grit out.

“Well, since you think it’s okay to do bad things, you’re clearly on some sort of opposite-day code of existence, so I’ll take that as a compliment,” Peter quipped.  And that would have been it, honestly- he was close to having the guy all taken care of- there was only one more hand to web to the wall- if the kitten hadn’t made a reappearance.  Distracted by scooping it up so that the half-trapped bad guy couldn’t step on it, he found himself looking down in mild surprise at a knife between the ribs at the same time his spidey senses went off (real helpful….).

“Whoa, is that vibranium?” He asked, running a finger along the handle.  “That’s literally the only material that can get through my suit. Seriously dude, how’d you get one of these?”

“None of your concern,” the man grit out, pulling a gun out of his pocket to finish the job after a second vibranium knife cut through the webbing securing his left arm.  “Say lights out, spidey.”

Luckily, Karen’s increased snitching policy wasn’t the only thing Tony put into the Mark III Iron spider suit (Mark II was a terrible failure; we don’t talk about that), and the AI’s voice was replaced with a recording of Nat.

“Step away from the Baby Avenger,” she ordered dangerously.  “You have been caught on camera and facial recognition software.  Your profile is currently being sent to both SHIELD and the FBI. The Avengers are on their way.  You have no chance. Back away from the spiderling. Any further injuries he sustains will not bode well for you.  Repeat, you touch one fucking hair on his head and SHIELD won’t find you before I do. I’ll fucking tear you limb from limb.”  Peter’s eyes widened. Nat’s words weren’t even being directed at him, and he was still terrified. He thought the baddie was quite right to run.

He was still holding the kitten, he realised belatedly.  “Wow, I’m getting a lot of blood on you, little guy… sorry…”

The kitten meowed, as if to say “eh, don’t worry about it.”  Then Karen’s voice came back.

“Incoming call from Tony Stark,” she informed him.  Peter huffed petulantly, which he realised belatedly was rather painful, his vision swimming with spots.

“Karen, you snitch,” he grumbled, as Tony’s face appeared in his mask.

“Hey kid, we’re on our way.  How you holding up?”

“I’m fine.  I was just about to head home,” he informed his father figure.

“NO!” Tony cried looking guilty when Peter flinched.  “I mean, stay where you are kid. Moving could make the injury worse.”

“Alright, if you say so.  But you didn’t need to come all the way down here- I don’t think it hit anything vital.”

“You are the most impossible child I have ever met,” Tony sighed, although inside he was being eaten alive with worry.  “What about the guy who did it- he gone?”

“Yeah,” Peter grumbled.  “I had him webbed in, but he had two vibranium knives on him.  Like, what even… like, whoever gave him that stuff, your mom’s a ho.”

“Peter, now is not the time to be quoting those mames things or whatever.”  If Tony wasn’t in the suit, he’d be pinching the bridge of his nose right now.

“It’s a vine, dad,” Peter sighed, his vision growing hazier.

“Alright, sorry Pete, just stay with me, alright?” Tony said, trying not to panic as Friday notified him that Peter was nearing unconsciousness.

“Eh, you can pull the knife out while I’m asleep, right dad?” Peter asked hazily, laying down on the ground. “‘Sides, I’ve got a kitten…”

“As soon as you’re better, we’re going to have a serious talk about your priorities,” Tony told him, landing in the alley with Sam and Rhodey.

“Where’s scary Aunt Nat?” Peter asked, looking blearily between the three of them.  

“She and the others met up with SHIELD to track the perp,” Rhodey explained as Tony carefully picked up his son and cradled him to his chest.  “They’ll be there when you wake up, okay? Now come on, let’s get you to Bruce and the MedBay. May and Pepper are worried sick.”

“I don’t like the MedBay,” was Peter’s helpful (note the sarcasm) final contribution to the conversation before he passed out.

When Peter woke up, it was to a sea of worried faces above him, and he groaned.

“Ugh, are you guys gonna be super fussy over me?” He whined.  “Because I wanna get out of here.”

“No can do buddy, you got stabbed,” Bruce informed him as he checked his vitals.

“Yeah, but it was like… a minor stab wound,” Peter argued.

One could visibly see Tony losing years from his life.  “Peter, it knicked a lung. You’re gonna be here for a few days at least.  Besides, there are no minor stab wounds.”  It took all his self-control to say that calmly.

“Aw, come on, a few days?” Peter protested.  “I could go to decathlon tomorrow- I’ve recovered from worse without any medical care!”

That was a mistake, as Tony, Pepper, Aunt May, and all the Avengers cried out “WHAT?!” Simultaneously.  

“I mean, what?  This is totally the worst injury I’ve ever gotten on patrol.  I never like, got stabbed or shot or anything in my old suit before Karen was there to snitch on me.  That is a ridiculous accusation.”

May raised an eyebrow at him.  “Cut the bullshit,” she ordered.   “Please don’t tell me you’ve gone to school with wounds like these…” she was begging, her voice cracking, and Peter looked down at his hands guiltily.

“I could lie if you want me to,” he muttered, and May just sighed, a heavy, weary sound.

“So that time sophomore year when I picked you up from school- about a week before Tony came around for the first time?  Was that really the flu?”

Peter wanted to reassure her by saying yes, but she was looking at him with narrowed eyes and he had a feeling he wouldn’t get away with it.  “No…” he mumbled, barely audible.

“I feel like I’m going to regret asking this,” Tony broke in, “but what was it?”

Peter wished that a hole would appear and swallow him up.  “Infection from a gunshot wound,” he admitted reluctantly, and the room broke out in a clamor.

Nat was the first to form any sort of coherent thought.  “What happened to the bullet?” She asked, her heart pounding in a way that even her most dangerous missions never caused, but this kid had wormed his way into her heart without even trying, and he wasn’t letting go.  “It’s not still… in you, is it?”

Peter looked up at her with wide eyes.  “God Nat, no! I’m not stupid!” He protested.  “I pulled it out with a pair of May’s tweezers.”

Tony was clutching his chest and thinking that this would be a very inconvenient time to have another heart attack as Pepper gripped his hand and coached him through some breathing exercises.  “JESUS PETER!” He yelled louder than he meant to, causing the boy to wince as his sensitive hearing was agitated. He took a deep breath and tried again. “For the love of… no wonder you got an infection,” he wheezed faintly.

“I sterilized them with a lighter first,” the teenager objected.

Pepper had to catch him before he hit the floor.

Besides initial worry for Tony (who was fine after a Xanax and a few hours by Peter’s bedside, watching to be reassured that he was still breathing), the next few days weren’t so bad for Peter.  Yeah, he was stuck in a hospital bed and Tony insisted on carrying him to the bathroom, but he got to eat as much ice cream as he wanted and the team let him pick every movie they watched for like a week.  And he got to keep the kitten, so that was nice. All he had to do was promise he’d do his best not to get stabbed again (which was easy, because he always tried his best not to get stabbed.  It just didn’t always work. Tony didn’t need to know that, though.  His blood pressure was high enough). And then things were okay again- for now, at least.  Ant that was all that a family of superheroes and their loved ones could really ask for.

Chapter Text

“Hey Underoos.”  Tony ruffled Peter’s hair as he walked by, causing him to look up and smile at his father figure before turning back to his phone.  “Whatcha doing?”

“Texting Shuri.”  Peter looked back up, his big brown eyes on Tony as his fingers moved rapidly across the touch keyboard of his StarkPhone with a proficiency that even Tony could only dream of.  “Why? What’s up?”

“I was just thinking about how much time kids spend on social media these days.”  

The teenager rolled his eyes fondly.  “You are in no position to give a ‘you kids and your phones’ old man lecture, dad.  You spend more time with your gadgets than the rest of us combined.”

“You’d be down in the lab just as much if you didn’t have school and none of us made sure you took time out to eat and sleep instead of forming bad habits like your old man,” Tony replied, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.  “But that’s not the point. This isn’t a lecture, kiddo. I was just thinking about PR stuff, and maybe the Avengers should have an Instagram and a twitter and all that jazz. And who better to run it than my favourite intern?”

“Dad, I have like, no social media presence.  The only people who follow my twitter are Ned, MJ, you, Pepper, and Shuri.  My instagram is basically just shit posting memes.” And his tumblr… well, nobody needed to know about that.  It was a mess of science jokes, bi puns, and, embarrassingly enough, Avengers fanboying. So, yeah...

“Well, you’re about to have a lot more, because we’re gonna make this official and everything.  You’ll do great, kiddo. It’ll be fun. Pepper agrees.”

Peter looked at him doubtfully.  “O-Kay… but like, how do you want me to run this?  Like, what are the parameters?”

Tony shrugged, unconcerned.  “However you want to, kid. This is your project.  Just be yourself.  You’re so lovable, I’m sure it’ll be a hit.”

Now Peter blushed and started smiling for real, always warmed by praise from his childhood-idol-turned-dad.  “Alright, I guess I could do that.”

“Awesome- I knew you’d be great kid.  Why don’t you make the accounts and then give Pepper the names and stuff, and then she can call a press conference to make sure everyone knows to follow the official account.  Don’t worry,” he put in immediately, seeing Peter pale at the idea of standing in front of a crowd that large.  “Pep will mention your name, but you won’t actually have to be there.”

“Does my name even have to be on it, though?” Peter asked, chewing his lip.  Tony squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

“Of course- how else will people know that this is quality stuff?” he replied, trying to seem casual- Clint had told him about the decathlon practice that one day he’d gone to pick Peter up, how everyone seemed surprised to see that Petey actually had an internship.  It made him angry to think people were doubting his kid, so he wanted to shove it all of their faces but without having to confront Peter directly about it- he knew he’d be embarrassed and probably tell him it was nothing to worry about. And maybe it was, but he was going to keep a close eye on things.  He saw Peter looking at him dubiously, but he thankfully let the subject go.

“Alright then- as long as I don’t have to deal with the press and stuff.”  The crowds made him anxious and the flashing of the cameras and the loud noises gave him sensory overload.  Tony knew this, which is why he never asked the kid to go to any.

“You know I wouldn’t do that to you kiddo,” Tony smiled at him and ruffled his hair again, loving the way the errant curls fell into Peter’s eyes and over the tips of his ears, making his nose wrinkle adorably as he went to push them out of the way.  He laughed. “Now c’mon- let’s get posting.”

Peter decided to keep the account names simple- it was @officialavengers for both instagram and twitter.  Pepper worked fast, and by afternoon they were up and running. His own accounts, @Peter-man-Parker, were already gaining followers off the charts, and he had to turn off the notifications for those accounts as he ruminated over what the first post on the Avengers accounts should be.  The whole online world was watching, waiting with baited breath, and he chewed his lip as he pondered. Should he go with something official, to seem more professional? But then again, Tony told him to run this his way, and he was peak Gen Z kid.  The internet had nothing on him; he was from a generation whose personalities came from the internet.

He walked around in his sweatpants and loose flannel over his ‘Life of π’ t-shirt, looking for a good shot.  It came in the kitchen, in the form of the elder of two residing Asgardian gods, who was in the middle of eating a brownie that was crumbling as he bit into it, hand under his chin to make sure every bit of Bucky’s fantastic baking would eventually make it to his mouth.  He snapped a photo and posted it to the instagram account with the caption. “This is the good kush.”

The photo blew up immediately- hundreds of likes in seconds, and then the comments started rolling in.

@I’m-Shuri-you-know-me: How good can it be if it’s from the dollar store though?!

@westanspiderman27: I’m not sure what I was expecting when the Avengers finally got an instagram, but whatever it was, this is so much better.

@iguessyoucouldsayimthorny: Wish daddy would eat me like that brownie.

Peter dutifully scrolled past a number of such comments, his face heating up.  It was worth it though, as he soon found another one to make him smile.

@keepingitloki: I’m insulted, Parker.  The only human around here I can remotely tolerate posting a picture of my brother first.  This is backstabbing at its finest.

He couldn’t resist responding to that one, so he switched to his main.

@Peter-man-Parker: @keepingitloki I thought you liked stabbing.

The comment was an instant hit, even more than Shuri’s, and the following thread made Peter’s cheeks warm pleasantly.

@stressed-depressed-and-definitely-not-blessed: How have we never found @Peter-man-Parker’s accounts before?  This guy is gold!  

      @MJdoingokay: @stressed-depressed-and-definitely-not-blessed oh trust me, he’s a total loser.

             @Nedontheweb: @MJdoingokay no he’s not or you wouldn’t be dating him.

                   @MJdoingokay: @Nedontheweb that argument is invalid since I’m dating you too.  I’m the cool demigirl in a relationship with two bi losers.

                          @Peter-man-Parker: Geez, love you too @MJdoingokay…

                                 @keepingitloki: all of you get off my thread.  This stupid midgardian phone won’t shut up.

Peter actually giggled at the image of Loki trying to figure out how to turn off the phone; it would probably end just like the toaster, with him sending it to another dimension with his magic.  He closed Instagram and opened his camera back up, strolling around looking for another photo op.

He found it when he heard Clint shuffling through the vents.  Remembering their stealth war and thinking that it was about time he proved again that he was the second-best sneak in the tower, he attached his phone magnetically to his StarkWatch (a new feature he had created and that Tony insisted on patenting under his name before they released it in the next model of both devices), climbing up the walls until he found the nearest opening in the vents.  He waited until he heard Clint coming, then tapped the metal quite loudly.

The spy tumbled halfway out with a yelp, his upper body upside down as he looked crankily at Peter, who was laughing as he snapped the photo.  He posted it with the caption “Hawkeye’s just hanging out.” Clint was… less than amused. But the comments were great.

@transmanwithaplan: even upside-down he’s cool.

@idontneedtoheartobebetterthanyou: A deaf icon in any position.

@icanthearmebutyoufearme: this is the greatest photo I’ve ever seen.

@idlistenbutiforgotmyhearingaidsonpurposesoiwouldnthaveto: I would die for him what a bean.

Peter showed his honorary uncle the comments, and his eyes went wide.  “People are really that impressed by a dorky photo of me?”

Peter laughed.  “Of course, man!  There are whole fan pages dedicated to you- not to mention that you’re a legend in the deaf community.  Every kid who’s ever had a disability has looked up at you and realised that their condition doesn’t define them. For a lot of people, you’re the most inspiring Avenger.”

Clint didn’t say anything else, merely ruffling Peter’s hair, but his eyes were suspiciously moist as he headed back up into the vents.  Later, as he was fiddling with a little robot he’d made in his room, he heard a soft “thanks, baby avenger,” coming from the vent in his ceiling, and he smiled.

Chapter Text

Peter was having a ton of fun with the new Avengers accounts, and since it was summer, he had plenty of time to post things and respond to comments when he wasn’t at decathlon practice or on patrol or a mission.

The most popular video on the instagram account right now began with Nat, as she opened the cabinets and a number of coffee cups came tumbling out.

“Who let Dum-E unload the dishwasher?” she yelled crankily, followed by a number of very impolite curses in Russian.  Peter, behind the camera trying to hold back a laugh, responded in English.

“Natalia Romanova!  What would Cap say if he could understand you right now?”

She looked at Peter with wide eyes.  “You speak Russian?” she asked. He’d never given any indication before.

“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p.’  “That’s what happens when you have no friends in middle school and watch too many spy movies.  And may I just say, you and Bucky sure do talk a lot of smack when you think none of us can understand you.”

“You little shit!” she called back in Russian as he ran away laughing.

“Bye, Takta!” he called back in the same language, already posting the video.  “Love you!”

Natasha wasn’t really going to make the effort to come after him pre-coffee, so he opened his personal twitter as he headed down to a kitchen that didn’t have an irate Black Widow in it and began pouring himself a bowl of cereal.  His last post had been two days ago- a photo of his well-thumbed copy of A Brief History of Time and the caption “Let’s get physic al” under it.  It already had 100,000 likes and 57,000 retweets from the night before, but Peter didn’t really care about that.  He liked looking at the comments, seeing what funny things people might have said about his latest shitpost.

@I’m-Shuri-you-know-me: Damn Daniel, back at it again with the white puns!

@MJdoingokay: Dork.

     @Nedontheweb: My boyfriend blew me off to hang out with Hawking.

           @Peter-man-Parker: Dude, my head was literally in your lap the whole time.

                @Nedontheweb: @Peter-man-Parker yeah, but you were quiet. It was weird.

                    @Peter-man-Parker: I don’t talk THAT much @Nedontheweb.

                         @ogtonystark: @Peter-man-Parker yeah kid, you totally do.

@Peter-man-Parker: @ogtonystark you betray me like this!  And after I helped you think of a totally cool twitter handle…

He looked up when he saw Tony and Pepper enter the kitchen, holding hands as Tony asked FRIDAY to start the coffee maker.

“Aunt Nat still in the other kitchen?” he asked them, and Pepper nodded.

“Yeah, ranting up a storm in Russian; your name appeared a couple times,” the CEO told him, and he laughed.

“Don’t worry about it,” he told her.  “Can you pass the Nutella?”

“Geez kiddo, you want me to make you some toast with that?” Tony asked, making a face as his son dipped the spoon into the jar and ate it straight (well, as straight as that sweet little bi disaster could ever do anything).

“Nah, I’m good,” Peter mumbled around another mouthful. “You got anything going on today?”

“A bunch of meetings,” Pepper responded. “Oh, don’t pout like that Tony; I got you out of all but one.”

“One too many,” Tony grumbled, but he stood on his tiptoes to kiss Pepper (who was wearing heels and currently just slightly taller than him) as she grabbed her coffee and prepared to leave.  “Love you, Pepperoncini. Go kick some ass.”

She rolled her eyes at one of his many terrible nicknames but kissed him back nonetheless, and Peter snapped a photo on his phone.  It was a sweet candid, Tony in his rumpled AC/DC t-shirt and oil-stained sweatpants, looking up at Pepper (every hair in place and looking put-together as always) like she’d hung the stars with her Armani heels.  He opened instagram and nearly posted it with only the caption “uwu” but after a moment decided to add something a little more serious than could usually be found on the account.

“Size means nothing if he wants you to stand in his shadow,” he typed, hitting post before he could overthink it.  Tony and Pepper were the perfect example of a healthy relationship, and he wanted people to know that the best men didn’t need to subscribe to some sort of toxic masculine stereotype just to be tough.  Tony was one of the best people he knew, and he hoped that anyone struggling in an unhealthy relationship could see the photo, the way Tony looked at Pepper with nothing but admiration and love, and realised that they deserved someone who would look at them like that too.

Their day was interrupted by a mission tracking down some arms dealers in Mexico- they’d been using the USA’s lax gun laws to buy firearms there and sneak them across the border, and the Avengers were called in on the suspicion that they might have gotten a hold of some alien tech.  It turned out they hadn’t, but Peter felt good about the mission anyway- they’d just made a whole town a lot safer, now that they didn’t have the constant threat of the weapons cartel hanging over their heads. The cartel had been terrorizing the locals for years, and no national or international security had stepped in until they thought it might be a ‘bigger problem’ with the alien tech.  That made Peter’s blood boil, that governments could care so little for their people and the daily adversity they suffered. And even though they’d saved one town, and he’d gotten to practice his Spanish and been fed tamales and flautas and enchiladas by a whole village’s worth of matronly women who pinched his cheeks and told him he was “demasiado flaco” while complimenting his language skills, the tight knot of anger stayed in his gut even as they reached the tower again the next night.  Sure, they’d saved one village, but what about all the others that couldn’t trust the government or their leaders to keep them safe?

He opened Buzzfeed, hoping to find something silly and stupid to help him calm down, and he was about to click the ‘lol’ button when something in the ‘trending’ section caught his eye.  It was a post entitled “Beautifully captioned post of morning Pepperony kiss is inspiring women to leave abusive relationships.”

Peter hadn’t checked the Avengers instagram or twitter page since they left for the mission the previous morning, so this was the first time he was reading these comments.

@karla1995 had said “Dear Tony and Pepper: thank you for your healthy relationship, an example to us all.  I’d been considering leaving my emotionally manipulative ex for a while now, and the caption on the photo this morning gave me the final push I needed to leave him behind for good.  It was scary, because the lease for the apartment was in his name and I was afraid I’d have nowhere to go, but a friend agreed to take me in for a while while I look for a new place.  I went ahead and accepted that promotion at work that he wouldn’t let me take because I’d be making more money than him, and I feel like a weight has been lifted. So thank you to Ironman, Pepper Potts, and @officialavengers, for being inspirational heroes during times of crisis both national and personal.”

@PSAcaptobeardcapglowup wrote “Wow, this post really made me rethink a lot about my current relationship.  And even though I’m not sure I’m quite ready to leave yet, I think I’m getting there.  It’s scary and it’s uncertain and it’s new, but knowing that Tony Stark can be a partner like that after everything he’s been through makes me think that maybe my mom was wrong when she said that all men are sh*t and I would just have to settle.”

Peter smiled, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tearing up as he went through the screenshots of some of the most inspiring comments.  He couldn’t believe that he’d been able to make a difference like this, indirectly, that he had given people the confidence to be their own heroes.  The last one made him laugh a bit, chuckling through the tears shining in his eyes.

@changedmyhandlechangedmylife : “A big thank you to the avengers and their cute little intern for the post yesterday morning on @officialavengers.  For a while now I’ve seen the signs coming but been powerless to stop them- my husband was upset about my pansexuality, and person by person he’d been cutting me off from my friends and family.  The final straw came when he tried to stop me from seeing my best friend last week, but I wasn’t able to do anything until this morning, when the photo of Tony and Pepper gave me that final bit of courage I needed to leave.  Now I’m staying with Amy, and things are good again. We were watching movies last night when she suggested that I ought to do something to really give him a final ‘f*ck you’ so we kissed. It was meant to be just a funny little thing where I took a photo and sent it to him, but it felt so right that we both forgot about that.  I never expected that I could be headed towards a relationship with Amy, but we’re going in that direction and I’m happier than ever.  So a big thanks to all of you for helping me leave his ass and find something so much better.”

Tony was tired after the mission as well, but it brought a smile to his face when his kid came barrelling up to him, eagerly prattling on about the buzzfeed article.  He wasn’t surprised; he’d always known his wife and kid would make a difference. Because that’s what this was. He didn’t believe that it was really anything he’d done.  But he let Pete have his faith in him, even if he thought he didn’t deserve it.  Because Tony Stark, despite what his teammates would say to the contrary, would swear up and down that he was a selfish man.  One day, thought, they swore they’d convince him otherwise.