Work Text:
1.
quentin beck doesn’t really notice the frazzled, bespectacled intern working on his Intuitive Projection Device (working title) team for a long time. for one thing, there are a lot of frazzled, bespectacled college students running around in his lab looking to snazz up their resumes and hopefully a job at stark industries, and for another, peter parker never really stands out. oh, sure, he’s smart–you didn’t study bio-engineering on a scholarship in empire state and land a spot on beck’s team without having some level of intelligence–but for the most part, he does what he’s told to without fuss and doesn’t really speak up much during team meetings. which, whatever. beck’s looking for people with ideas and bombast and, well, presence, so when parker’s internship ends, he’s off on his merry way. end of story.
except–
on the eve of his project’s big launch, tony stark takes over. says he’s going to do the honours. which–all right. beck was hoping to be a little more present while his life’s work was unveiled, but he knew what he was getting into by agreeing to work under someone like tony stark. he hands everything he has over to his boss.
tony renames his blood, sweat and tears Binary Augmented Retro-Framing device, or BARF, to an audience full of (ignorant, fucking ignorant!) laughing college students. uses it as a gimmicky side-show while unveiling some other completely different initiative, while beck stands backstage, staring, slack-jawed. there is not a single mention of the years it took to put together even a prototype of the thing, what it means to have a technology so intuitive that it’s the new cutting edge in biotech, the endless legal and ethical loopholes that beck had to circumvent to test the thing, the endless possibilities that it opens–
stark’s taken it all away. the project that consumed the last ten years of his life–gone. signed away to a fucking megalomaniac in a metal suit.
beck goes back to his empty apartment that night, numb, opens his liquor cabinet and goes to town. the next morning, drunk and blind with fury, he storms up to tony stark’s office to give him a piece of his mind. of course, he doesn’t actually make it anywhere near tony’s office; he’s thrown out on his ass by security before he can make it past the lobby. he’s fired by email later that day; told that they will press charges if he tries anything like he did that day again.
beck doesn’t explode, contrary to stark’s claims of ‘instability’. he’s not giving tony the satisfaction of flaming out and fading away into obscurity. after all, he was the brains of the operation, and stark can’t take that away from him. he can focus on clowning around in that suit of his all he wants; beck’s going to come up with stuff that’ll blow his company fucking out of the water. all he needs is patience, and time, and–
a team.
he sends emails to everyone from his old team. only a few reply–and even they are reluctant to risk their jobs at stark industries to work with him. only one person replies positively and agrees to meet him.
the next day, quentin is sitting across from a nervous peter parker at a mcdonalds and he thinks: this is where it all begins.
2.
peter parker is… weird.
when he’s actually present, oh, he’s a fucking revelation: the kid has a knack for making something out of virtually nothing; he’s worked wonders on the few pieces of old tech that beck was able to wrangle by calling in favours with old acquaintances. he rambles and makes silly jokes, but there’s always something fresh and insightful to what he says. it’s like his mind is not just a few steps ahead of everybody else, but fucking doing somersaults on the ceiling. more than anything else, he believes: in the potential of beck’s work, the ways it could revolutionise any number of fields, how it could help people. he’s all beck could ever ask for in an assistant, in a partner, and he can scarcely believe this is the same man as that unassuming intern who worked for him so many years ago.
the kicker, though, is that peter parker isn’t often… present. he often comes in late or cancels altogether, citing one emergency or the other. there are several mornings when he stumbles in, utterly exhausted, hands closed around a jumbo-sized coffee like it’s his lifeline. for a long while, beck is willing to let it go: after all, peter’s pursuing his phd, working in another lab that actually pays him, and looking after his aunt. besides, he’s a twenty-something young man in new york city who’s handsome in a charming, dorkish sort of way–of course he’s going to have a social life.
still… it’s worrying. he’s not sure he wants to sit peter down and talk about it (that would be mortifying for both of them, beck thinks); he settles for working even harder to put a couple of projects together so that he can apply for funding and actually pay the kid like he deserves. in the meantime, he makes sure to buy peter a meal whenever he can, and if his insides wobble a little whenever peter beams at offers of a pizza night, beck will have you know that it means nothing, okay?
3.
when beck discovers that peter’s spider-man, it’s an accident.
he goes to the lab in the middle of the night to pick up his phone that he’d forgotten; peter cancelled on him again that day, and beck’s long, long rope is starting to fray. when he turns to leave, he hears a muffled thump. across the dark, cavernous room, spider-man–spider-man!–climbs through an open window and collapses in an ungraceful heap on the floor. beck stands stock-still as the hero groans and tugs at his mask–to reveal peter parker’s face, stark and pale in the moonlight spilling through the window.
for a long, seemingly interminable moment, beck holds his breath.
in that moment, a lot of things start making sense.
spider-man–peter parker!–reaches one hand out, makes some sort of gesture, and a web shoots out of his wrist, snags a water bottle and brings it to his hand. peter tips his head back and chugs. he’s still not gotten up from the floor; there are rips in his suit, and beck thinks he can see blood–
no. no. he doesn’t want to see anymore. it feels weirdly intimate, and beck isn’t sure if he ever knew the first thing about peter parker after all. he closes his eyes, turns, and slips away quietly.
quentin beck doesn’t go back to his lab for two days, doesn’t answer calls or emails. peter is particularly persistent, even offering to visit his apartment, but beck puts that off with a terse, ‘no. i’m fine. call you later.’ he spends most of those two days staggering with the sheer magnitude of the secret that he’s just discovered–no wonder the asshole was always late! he was too busy swinging from buildings and taking down costumed supervillains!–and the betrayal, which overcomes him in waves. all the while beck was looking fondly on peter, even considering him a protege, he was doing something that beck had repeatedly spoken of with profound contempt. and peter even agreed with him several times! with a straight face! he’s nothing but a two-timing, manipulative sociopath, just like stark–
–oh dear god.
oh no no no no no.
he’s seen spider-man help out stark and the avengers a few times, hasn’t he? he’s never been announced as an official avenger, but these costumed freaks all flock together often, yeah? was peter parker assigned to spy on beck? did stark put him up to it? he must’ve; stark probably didn’t like that beck was smarter, better, capable of so much more–and that he was all of this without having been handed an entire multi-million dollar company on a silver platter.
and yet–
all of peter’s wide-eyed sincerity, his belief, his passion–beck can’t have imagined all of that, right? there has to be at least a part of him that beck can–can still love–
god-fucking-dammit.
fine. if he can’t ever get away from these costumed weirdos, then he’s just going to do what he’s always done: work with what he’s got.
4.
the next time beck sees peter, it’s three weeks later and he says, “i know you’re spider-man.”
to peter’s credit, he looks surprised only for a fraction of a second; if beck wasn’t looking for it (if beck didn’t know peter as well as he did) he would’ve never noticed.
peter laughs. “fine,” he says. “sure, and you’re iron man.”
beck hasn’t the time for games. “i saw you in costume, peter. i won’t lie and tell you that i wasn’t hurt that you’d hide that from me, but rest assured that i will keep your secret.”
peter’s face freezes in a half-smile, mouth slightly open, as if he’s just lined up his next joke to dismiss what beck said. suddenly, his smile disappears and he… deflates. “sorry,” he says, his gaze shifting to the ground. “i didn’t mean–it’s just–i try so hard to keep my day job and my… other job separate, you know? and i don’t want to put the people i love in even more danger than they already face by just living in a world where there’s an alien invasion every other week, so, i just. you know.”
beck firmly dismisses the way his heart flutters at people i love and says, “i know. and honestly? given what the world’s like these days? it’s great you’re out there doing what you do.”
peter gives him a tentative smile. “dr. beck, you know, i’m so glad you’re taking this so well–i came so close to telling you so many times because i felt so bad making up excuses for missing out on such exciting work, and–”
“but peter, you’re fired.”
“–if i’d known that–wait.” peter blinks once, deliberately. it’s almost comical. “what?”
“i said you’re fired, peter,” beck tells him pleasantly. “i appreciate everything you’ve done tremendously–and rest assured that you will get credit where credit is due–but going forward… this just won’t work out, pete.”
“what? no, no, no, wait.” peter leans forward. “i’ve–we’ve made it work so far, right? i’ll find time–i’ll cut back on… other things. dr. beck,” and now he has the audacity to grab beck’s hands, and beck thinks he’s going to rip apart at the seams from all the emotion that’s coursing through him right now, “what you’re doing is inspiring. it’s going to help so many people. please let me be a part of it.”
“you’re already helping people.” you’ve helped enough.
“dr. beck, ple–”
“come on now, peter, spider-man doesn’t beg!” beck looks away from peter’s pleading, desperate eyes. he needs to remember that these superhero types always love to put on a show. whether that’s stark, or pe–spider-man. “this doesn’t mean the end of our friendship, peter. i’ll see you around.”
he walks away before peter can say another word.
5.
beck collects more of stark industries’ rejects and malcontents for his team, but this time his pitch is different: if the world has moved on, if the only way to be important and beloved and heard is to fly around with a cape and lasers shooting out of your hands, then that is exactly what he’s fucking going to do. he focusses more on illusion technology, fashioning spectacles that will only ever be limited by his own imagination. it’s slow, arduous work, but–ironically–peter has already done most of the ground work, and it’s a matter of building from there.
peter tries calling him for the first few weeks after their last meeting; beck never answers. it takes longer than beck thought it would for him to stop trying. kid was always tenacious as hell.
then ultron happens. the u.n. blows up. then the sokovia accords.
the avengers split up, going for each other’s throats: iron man on one side, captain america on the other. beck’s a little relieved to see that spider-man isn’t on either side.
the whole thing ends up going to hell, and a complete PR disaster for stark and co. there’s far less superhero activity after that, and stark’s operations shrink considerably–which honestly just means beck has more disgruntled, brilliant ex-employees to recruit to his cause. even spider-man goes completely underground.
(peter parker, though, is teaching at empire state. so beck is not too worried. yet.)
it’s the perfect time to debut mysterio.
6.
it always ends on a bridge, in the eye of a firestorm.
peter’s grip is inhumanly strong; beck can feel the bones in his wrist grind and pop. he drops the gun he was pointing at peter’s head and tries to twist away.
“we could’ve accomplished so much together.” peter looks angry, but he sounds… mournful.
beck tastes blood at the back of his throat. “we still can,” he gasps. “it’s not too late.”
peter doesn’t say no, and he clings to that even as darkness consumes him and he falls.