Chapter Text
“Mr. Stark,” Peter came into the lab after school one Friday, “I wanted to know if you would help me with something?”
“I mean I am busy but—“ Tony winked.
Peter smiled softly, “I keep telling MJ that she doesn’t have to be aware of how much she weighs because there is no perfect weight because everyone is made differently and if there were only one perfect body or person we’d all be the same and that would be boring.”
“Sure. Where do I come in?” Tony knew his smile was in his eyes.
“I was thinking some proof might help.” Peter shrugged, “I was thinking we could run my DNA and show her just how different I am from what someone would consider normal.”
“Peter—“ Tony started to shake his head, “I don’t know about that. It makes me worried it’ll end up in another person’s hands and then what?”
“We don’t have to put names on it or anything. If anyone were to find it then they’d still have no clue who it belonged to.” Peter shrugged,
“Please. I’ll make her burn it afterward in front of me.”
“If we’re going to show a difference we would need a comparison model.”
“Yeah. You.” Peter rolled his eyes, “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!”
“I suppose that would be easy enough because Friday has access to run samples of both of our blood. You promise she will burn the info in front of you afterward?” Tony frowned, “I mean it, Kid. I don’t want this in the wrong person’s hands.”
“I promise!” Peter grinned, “So you’re going to do it.?”
“You heard the kid, Fri. Run the DNA test and compare mine—Hell compare Rhodey’s too.”
“OH! This is great!” Peter dropped his backpack and hugged his mentor.
Tony hugged the fourteen year old back.
~
“Boss, I have those tests ready for you.” Friday interrupted hours later.
“Cool. Send them our way. Put them up on the big screen.” Tony mumbled while working on something else. Tony and Peter had their own screens but also a big one they shared for projects they were working on together. He figured this was the later of the two.
Tony heard something drop and shatter while he was still finishing up his work on Rhodey’s suit, “Kid?” It wasn’t like Peter to drop things. He had sticky super powers after all.
Peter was just staring at the screen.
“Kid, we already knew you shared DNA with a Spider.” Tony rolled his eyes getting up to see what had caused that kind of reaction.
Tony glanced at the screen and then at Peter, “Run it again, Fri. You made a mistake.”
“I ran it twice, sir.” Friday explained.
“Run it again.” Tony demanded, “It’s a mistake.”
“Yes, Boss.”
~
“Boss—“ Friday interrupted about an hour later.
“—Put it on the screen, Fri.” Tony walked over in anticipation.
Tony and Peter looked at each other, “We’re not going to panic about this.”
“I’m not panicking.” Peter soft quietly.
“You’re not?” Tony glanced over in surprise. He turned toward Peter and didn’t even see the kid’s fist coming his way to meet his nose. Blood dribbled down and pain exploded.
Peter turned on his heel and walked out after that. Leaving Tony on the floor in a mess of his own blood and with what he could only assume was a broken nose.
~
“Peter?” May stood up quickly when she heard the front door, “Tony called me.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You don’t get to hit your mentor and not talk about it.” May crossed her arms over her chest.
“Mentor?” Peter laughed bitterly, “Did he explain why I hit him?”
“No. He was just worried about you getting home safely.” May frowned.
Peter rolled his eyes, “He’s not just my mentor. He’s my biological father.”
“Wait.” May’s eyebrows shot up, “I’m going to need you to explain.”
“You can’t tell me you didn’t know!” Peter yelled.
“Okay. Okay.” May held up her hands in front of her, “I knew that Richard wasn’t your biological father. I never knew who was though. I promise. Your parents took that to their grave.”
“YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME WHAT YOU DID KNOW!” Peter went to his room and slammed the door.
May sighed, “Yeah. I should have. But I was trying to protect you.”
Peter pretended that he hadn’t heard her. He wasn’t in the mood for excuses.
~
“No way.” Ned’s mouth was gaped open at school the next morning.
“I know.” Peter nodded.
“You hit Tony Stark?” Ned was stuck on this.
“I mean I was scared but now I’d do it again. I’d do it in a heartbeat. I have so much anger.”
“You think he knew?” Ned asked quietly glancing around them at lunch.
“How could he not?”
“It doesn’t seem like he would have known and agreed to mentor you.” Ned was trying to put two and two together but he was not getting four as an answer in this situation.
“Peter Parker—Please report to the school office.”
“What now?” Peter groaned.
“Good luck.” Ned whispered.
~
Peter walked into the school office and found May and Tony standing there, “Nope.”
May raised a brow, “You aren’t getting out of this talk. We can do it here or we can leave and go home.”
Peter saw it in his aunt’s face. She wasn’t going to budge on this talk.
“It’s just a conversation.” Tony said softly, “We’re not making any life changes.”
Peter sighed, “I don’t have a choice so let’s go.”
~
Peter was silent the whole drive home.
“You’re going to need to participate in this talk. I know you were very angry—“ May started.
“—That’s the thing about anger. It begs to stick around.” Peter never met his aunt’s eyes.
“Well we’re family so.” May put on her turn signal, “We’re not throwing this away because we found out some news that our family expanded in a way that changes nothing about how our family functions. Tony was already acting in that role.”
“STOP!” Peter got out of the car in the garage in the tower, “JUST STOP TALKING TO ME!”
“Peter—“ Tony started walking toward the pair, “You cannot talk to your aunt that way.”
“I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE! I’D RATHER BE IN SCHOOL. I SHOULD BE IN SCHOOL. I WANT NED AND MJ AND NORMAL! I JUST WANT NORMAL!” Peter yelled.
“Boss, Peter’s heart rate is getting too high.” Friday warned, “If he doesn’t calm down he could have a panic attack.”
“Okay, Roo. Okay.” Tony made his voice as quiet as possible. He had read once that if someone was mad they would always want to be louder than you. He figured the quieter he got the quieter Peter would be, “I’ll take you back to school after our talk. I promise.”
“NO!” Peter wiped at the tears on his face, “NOW!”
“Um. Is this a good time to say I’m home?” Rhodey walked over quietly still holding his carry on. Peter saw Rhodey and recognized him as the only safe adult and went over by him. Rhodey hugged him and whispered that he was safe over and over again until he felt his nephew start to relax.
Tony started to walk over and Rhodey gave a slight shake of his head. Tony was mad. He could see it in his friend’s body language but Tony needed to give Peter time.
“Want me to take you back to school?” Rhodey asked softly.
Peter just clutched onto his uncle’s shirt, “I just want Ned.”
“Okay. Bet. Let’s go get him. There is nothing saying this conversation needs to happen this minute.” Rhodey reassured.
“They disagree.”
“I know. They are just anxious.” Rhodey sighed, “They should have done what I suggested and given you some space.”
“Yeah.” Peter nodded as he sniffled.
“Text Ned. See if we can pick him up. Maybe he can help you make sense of what you’re feeling?”
Peter wiped his eyes pulling out his phone, “Yeah. Ned’s the best.”
“I bet he is.” Rhodey realized Peter wasn’t letting him go anytime soon. He motioned to Tony and May to leave. They were only going to bring his panic attack back to the surface. He had this for now.
“They left?” Peter said after a few minutes.
“Yeah.”
“Good.”
“Ned?”
“Will you drive?”
“You bet, kiddo. Anything you need.” Rhodey smiled.