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Peter Parker was a smart kid. He was one of the smartest kids at his school, if not the smartest. He even had an internship with Tony Stark! Which became less of a mentor mentee relationship, and more of a dad son kinda thing.
He was also really lucky to have one of the best aunts you could get. Peter rarely ever complained about her, and even when he did it was something silly like her cooking.
Peter was the best at math in his class. He was lucky, born smart. He still fought for his grades though. His class, once again, had a math assignment. They often had these, it was to prepare for the exams. They had around two weeks to do it. That’s a lot of time that Peter was more than grateful to have.
Math may come easy to him, but he still struggled a bit with some of the questions. Fortunately he had Tony to help him whenever he was about to give up. So when Peter one day came home to his apartment from school, math assignment in his hand with a big A+ on it, he couldn't stop beaming to say the least.
He had gotten A’s lots of times before that, and by now it wasn’t that special, but this time he had really worked for it which was clear by his mood after getting the result. Even his teacher said it couldn’t have gone better.
On TV parents always hang their children's achievements on the fridge, and jokingly Peter said he should hang it on there. May, being the ever supporting aunt, said he should do it. At first he said no, but after encouragement from his aunt he did, while asking where the tape was. With that he took 3 pieces of tape, and put the assignment right in the middle, in eyeheight. May laughed at him, and the two kept their mood up for the rest of the day.
…~*~...
It had been two weeks since he had taped it to the fridge. By now they were used to seeing it there, and didn’t really think anything of it.
It was friday, and Peter was going to the tower for a movie night and sleepover later, but right now he was sitting on the couch in his living room watching a movie.
May wasn’t in a good mood, there had been some problems at work, which happened from time to time. Peter didn’t really think anything of it, everyone had their off days once in a while, even amazing people like aunt May.
It was the classic walking around complaining about how messy it was. Peter just ignored it knowing she was just rambling to herself, and she wasn’t expecting an answer either way. A few times he had to pause the series he was watching because she started talking to him though. Not really a problem.
The third time Peter had to pause it, she was half yelling. Half yelling about his math assignment. She told him to “Take that shitty tape off the fridge and take your papers with you when you get up”. He didn’t really think anything of it, and just told her he would do exactly that.
It was finally time to go to the tower, thankfully he didn’t have to pack a bag since he had all necessary things at the tower. Before he went out he remembered the papers, and went to pull off the three, still somehow intact, pieces of tape off the fridge. Then he took the papers and threw them in the trash. There was no need to save them, he had gotten lots of A’s and only put it on the fridge as a joke.
Before he could think any more of it he had to get going unless he wanted to be late. He half ran to the subway, and was bouncing his leg up and down when he got in, excited to arrive.
In the entrance hall he greeted the receptionist, and was soon in the elevator, asking FRIDAY to take him to the common floor. Some of the Avengers were spread around on the big couches, a few in the kitchen. Tony smiled when he saw him, and Peter grinned back.
He looked into the kitchen and caught a glimpse of the fridge. There, right in the middle, hang a piece of paper with their grocery list, tapped in the top and bottom. Peter's grin instantly fell though he wasn’t sure why.
The others, unsurprisingly, noticed immediately, and gave him worried looks.
“Hey Peter, you okay?” Tony asked, concerned.
Tony looked at the others and they immediately left the room, giving the two space to talk.
“Yeah, I-I’m okay” Then Peter felt a surge of rage, then he got sad again, a small tear rolling down his cheek. Tony was quick on his feet and guided Peter to sit beside him on the couch.
“Hey buddy, buddy, what’s wrong” Tony was starting to panic a bit by now, he didn’t know what to do with a, soon, crying child.
Peter then told him about the math assignment he had been so proud of, hanging on the fridge, and how May had told him to get in off the fridge today. He was leaning his head on his chest by now, Tony with a firm grip around Peter. Peter thought it was stupid. Honestly who cries over not having their good grade hanging on the fridge.
He wasn’t sure why it affected him that much. He hadn’t even given it a second thought about it when it happened. It wasn’t because everyone who came over now couldn’t see he did good in school, he had never had the need to brag about that kinda thing.
Still, Peter was hurt, and he couldn’t figure out why. He wasn’t sobbing, not even near it, but his eyes were wet, and you could sense the tear trails on his cheeks. Maybe it was the feeling of May not caring about something he was proud of?
Jeez feelings are confusing! You rarely ever know why you feel the way you do and it’s almost impossible to turn it into words. Peter wasn’t the poetic type who knew just how to word his sentences so people would be able to understand exactly how he felt. He himself didn’t even know how he felt.
One thing he did know though, was that sitting there on the couch, hugging Tony closely made him feel better. A lot better actually.