Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The living room of the avengers tower was a quite a pleasant place. Most of the avengers were just sitting about, some reading, some talking, while other sat looking at their phones like hermits. Tony, surprisingly was not on his phone, but was making a coffee for himself and for Pepper, who was seated next to Hope, talking about girly things. As Tony worked on his coffee, he took a second to listen to the sounds of the room. The roaring winds and splattering of rain was overbearing the normal din of the room, but he could still her Cap arguing with Barnes and Wilson over by the couch. Sharon Carter and Carol were at the bench table, drinking beers, which he was not surprised by, they were not your typical dainty women. Scott was weirdly sitting by himself, that was not the weird part, the weird part was that he was playing with legos, like a child. Clint was talking to Nat, who was not listening and instead was staring at the T.V. Tony couldn’t tell if she was watching or just staring. It quite frankly creeped him out. Wanda was beside Clint, also watching T.V.

All the other Avengers were out, some on missions, others at home with their families. Vision was surprisingly on a vacation to Ireland. The thought of Vision surrounded by a bunch of Irishmen brought a giggle from Tonys lips as he sat down with two coffees in hand.

“Whats so funny?” Pepper asked him, turning to face him.

“Nothing, just thinking about Vision in Ireland.” He said, a smile on his face as he handed Pepper her coffee.

She smiled, taking a sip, while Hope laughed out loud.

It was quiet for a second, the din of the room still reverberating around the room.

“Its raining really hard isn’t it?” Hope asked, though it wasn’t really a question.

All three of them looked out to the windows. It was Indeed pouring, the day was dark and dank, even though it was only six in the afternoon, with high winds. Still, the city was bustling around. Not as much as it would have on a normal day, but it was still impressive.

A storm was brewing, lightning and thunder were going to arrive, but Tony could tell it would be a while, maybe even a couple hours.

Pepper and Hope began talking again, while Tony just sat there, nursing his coffee and staring out the window. These days, no one other than Pepper, Hope, Sharon or Carol even wanted to talk to him.

It had all started a week ago. The rogue avengers had been welcomed back after a long and exhausting process of lawsuits and public outcry. Some of the public were angry that they were being let back in, while some were angry that they had been forced out of the country in the first place.

Tensions among the Avengers were still high. The two factions that had been created the year before still remained, but they had blurred around the edges. They was no official outspoken allies, but everyone knew who agreed with Tony and who agreed with Rogers.

Tony had taken to remaining stoic. He didn’t joke around with the Rogues anymore, and in a more petty version of an insult, he had also taken to pointedly ignoring and not including the Rogues in any team activities.

He didn’t trust Rogers anymore, he didn’t think he ever would, but he wanted to, a treacherous voice in his mind would whisper. He also kept Wilson and Clint at bay, which was not hard, considering they seemed to hate him.

He dared not even look at Barnes, he didn’t think he could without blowing a fuse. Nat was a whole different story. After their argument at the end of civil war, he didn’t think their relationship was salvageable. The thing was, he truly wanted to make up with her. She was a friend, and he didn’t have many of those at the moment. The only thing stopping him was that he couldn’t trust her anymore.

In the past, whenever she had “betrayed” him, it was always for the greater good. But this, this was more personal, she had blatantly taken Caps side. That would have been fine if she had done that from the beginning, but she had blindsided him, lied to him.

She didn’t really talk to him anymore, but he would see her staring at him curiously from time to time. Sometimes, after making a joke, she would look at him to, as if looking to see if he would laugh at her joke. At first, it gave him hope that she wanted to be friends again, but after last week, she seemed to hate him even more than Clint, and he knew why.

After the whole “Vulture Incident”, as Peter liked to call it, Tony had taken him under his wing. He had realised that since Civil War, he had kept the boy at arms length. It had put them both in a weird sort of relationship. He had begun expecting Peter to do what he had always done, be a friendly neighbourhood spider-man, while Peter had expected to go beyond that.

The thing Tony didn’t realise was that he couldn’t expect Peter to be just a friendly neighbourhood spider-man when he had basically allowed him to be a temporary avenger. Of course the kid would think he would be needed to be an Avenger again. He also did the mentoring thing very badly. He used Happy as a middle man, basically destroying any communication between Tony and the kid. Plus, he never actually spent any time with Peter, so he couldn’t actually teach him anything. Honestly, he didn’t know how Peter didn’t kill Tony.

After Peter rejected his offer to join the Avengers, Tony decided to invite him to the Tower, which he had bought back. So after a couple times of visiting the Tower, they had fallen into an easy routine of Peter coming to the the tower around three times a week. He had interacted with everyone really well, except he always kept his mask on, so no one knew how old he was, but they had guessed early twenties. Honestly, Tony wasn’t surprised he had meshed with the team well, he was just a bright presence that seemed to push away the gloom that was always surrounding the Avengers. He was always joking around with the team, sometimes subtly insulting the rogues, much to the hilarity of Tony.

That was certainly a surprise. The kid seemed to hold a grudge to the rogues. Well only some of them. Tony didn’t really expect him to because he knew that most of tension between everyone wasn’t really about the Accords, but personal conflict, such as Tony and Barnes.

Tony also knew Peter couldn’t be angry at the rogues for not supporting the Accords, as the boy didn’t really care for them himself, and as far as he knew, he didn’t have any personal problems, nor did he hold a grudge from the fight.

Pepper had told him that the kid was angry on his behalf, but Tony didn’t believe it, not until he saw Peter literally laying in Cap. He had broken up that fight really quickly, but still, the damage had been done and now Peter didn’t even look at Captain America anyone.

That was the biggest surprise. He had expected the kid to be over the moon to properly meet the Avengers. He hadn’t met them before the fight in Leipzig as Tony wanted him to be a surprise, but during the fight, Tony could see he was very excited to be even fighting the Avengers.

Although the kid was angry, he was slowly warming up the Avengers.

He had not expected resentment on behalf of him. Truthfully, Tony felt was very much more affected by Peter than he showed. The fact that Peter would go against his idols on just principle and for him, touched him deep in his iron heart. He was quite fond of the young spiderling. Quite protective too, although he would never admit it.

It was a week ago that Peter and himself were sitting at the coffee table, talking and theorising over new additions that they could make to Peters web shooters. The both of them thought that they would be quite alone as it was nine after noon, but it seemed that after not living with a super spy for a while, Tony forgot that she sometimes would stay up very late.

They hadn’t realised Natasha walk into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. Natasha who heard their conversation, and very quickly put everything together.

It was the next day that Tony was accosted by the Avengers, all of them. Natasha had told Cap, who had told everyone, even the ones that were not the Rogues. To say they were furious was an understatement. Natasha was perhaps the most angry of them all. Tony understood it, he really did, Natasha had her own history with child soldiers.

She understood the severity of children at war. She had grilled Tony in front of everyone for recruiting and supporting Peter’s ambitions.

Thats what they thought, that he had pushed the kid into being a vigilante, or at least encouraged him. Angry at him that he didn’t stop Peter. Honestly, he was insulted. How could they think that he would push a child into fighting for his life? Didn’t they know him better than that? God, they had lived with him for years, how could they think that?

The rest of the avengers, including his own team from Civil War were now at odds with him for seemingly recruiting Spider-Man. What really hurt was the disappointment on some of their faces.

No one even thought to ask Peter, who still didn’t know that his identity was known to the avengers. None of them had seen his age or face, but they knew his first name, and that he was young, too young, which Nat had realised when listening to the conversation between Peter and Tony. Tony took that as a blessing, the kid would have a fit if his full identity was out.

What Tony did not think was fair was Nat being angry at Peter. She claimed he was throwing his life away and didn’t need to try and be a hero.

That had gotten Tony angry. It was not so much what she said, but her tone. It was clear she didn’t think much of Spider-Man. As if he was below her. Now that he thought about it, most of the Avengers didn’t think much of him either. And it wasn’t because of his age, as they were like this before finding out his identity. They had always talked down to him. Just a subtle condescending lilt in their voices here and there. Peter thankfully never realised, but Tony did, and it made him angry.

The Avengers, not even the pro accords ones respected Peter as a hero. They thought he was just a low level street fighter. Someone who made shitty jokes and spent his time saving cats from trees.

He was much more than that.

“Boss, it would be a good idea to turn on the news.” Fridays voice interrupted him from his angry stewing.

He looked up from his coffee, a questioning furrow in his brows as thought what could possibly be happening on the news to warrant Friday suggesting it. Looking around the room, it seemed they had stopped whatever they were doing and were also looking at the ceiling, seemingly thinking the same as him.

Looking towards Nat, who was primarily watching T.V, he tilted his head questioningly, as if asking can we watch the news? The spy stared at him, angry scowl on her lips, but eventually nodded. He guessed she too was interested, but her pride warred with what she wanted.

“Yeh, why don’t you turn the channel sweetheart?” Tony said, ignoring the weird looks he got when he said sweetheart.

What? He loved his AI, so sue him.

Conversations around the room stopped and everyone sat back to watch the news. Even Scott, the man child got up and sat down next to Hope.

The channel switched to the news, a pretty blond presented was sitting alone speaking with distressed look on her face.

“Breaking news, a woman has been spotted standing atop a building in Queens, authorities have cautioned road blocks to the surrounding streets. It has been guessed that this is a suicide attempt.”

The sudden atmosphere of the room plunged as everyone tensed and sat up and began to pay more attention. Peppers hands tensed as she tried to move hers to Tonys in the hope to calm down. It didn’t work. The woman kept talking, but her words were wind as she watched the screen turn into a camera shot. The footage was from being filmed from atop a building adjacent to the one in question.

A woman, with long dark black hair moving about in the wind was standing on the ledge of the building. She was short, standing at what Pepper guessed would be 5’3. She was wearing a thin white sweater with blue jeans and white shoes. All of which were drenched and were continuing to be soaked by the heavy rainfall. It was a horrific scene, the dark clouds feeling like an actual being, one that seemed to not only bring rain, but also sadness.

A gasp to her right brought her attention to Hope. Her eyes were wide open, her mouth opening and closing, but no sounds were coming out.

“What?” Pepper asked, desperate to know what had brought about this reaction.

“She…she…she’s so young.” Hope stammered out.

Peppers head snapped back up to the screen, now focussing on the woman’s age. Oh! She was young, her beautiful, youthful face that could not be any older than twenty years old was soaked not only with rain but also tears. The sight was enough to bring tears to Pepper herself.

The poor girl looked to be terrified. As if she wanted to jump of the ledge, but was afraid. Pepper could even see that she was shaking, the poor thing. The red haired woman could only hope that she could be stopped from jumping, stopped before she was not afraid anymore, before to committed herself to jumping.

The only thing was, Pepper did not how she could be saved. From where she was, who could even talk to her, persuade her not to jump? The authorities probably did not even have a big enough megaphone to reach how high she was.

Even the Avengers couldn’t do anything. They weren’t those types of heroes. They saved the world, millions of people, but they did it through fighting aliens and whatnot, they didn’t know how to save people from themselves. Honestly, they couldn’t really relate with the people, and how could they, some of the Avengers weren’t even human. They lived completely different lives and in completely different ways. The iron man suit may even spook the girl who may end up jumping.

She didn’t know who could save her, she just prayed someone did.

As Nat watched the young girl sob and shake on the ledge of the building, she heard a small noise coming from the footage. She could see some of the others in the room had noticed too. It didn’t seem like much, but when she heard it again, twice in quick succession, her eyes narrowed as she focused on the screen intently. Whenever is was, it wasn’t supposed to be there, it had the potential to pose a problem, and Nat didn’t want anything that could spook girl to happen.

“Spider-Man, the hero of queens has been spotted swinging down to the scene faster than anyone has ever seen him before…”

A low growl escaped Nat’s lips as she registered the news anchors words. She scoped the footage, looking for the young spider, finding him zipping across the skyline.

What was he doing here? It did not register to her the the young man was out in the cold, and must’ve been patrolling for a few hours in the rain, for she could only focus on her anger.

He was young, and that was exactly why he should leave this work to the police, and today would prove it. He was not equipped to handle a situation of this severity. Too young, to innocent to be able to relate to the young woman on the building ledge. His inane humour would further worsen the situation.

No, the Black Widow did not trust Spider-Man at all, she didn’t believe him capable.

What startled her though, was the fact that the people on the street cheering, even the news anchor visibly relaxed.

Why would they cheer for him?

She continued to watch, her breaths coming out in short bursts as Spider-Man took one last spin, and gracefully landed around 20 feet behind the woman. He did not land in the signature pose nor did he do any tricks in the air that she had sometimes seen, but instead landed on his feet.

The landing itself was weird. Unnatural even, for after he landed, he was silent and tense. The only part of the boy she could see moving was his chest heaving in and out and his hands balling into fists, which he slowly let go of after a few seconds.

This was not the Spider-Man she knew. Granted, she didn’t really know him, but she had seen plenty of videos. He seemed to have lost all of his immaturity, standing stiff, and tall. She had never really registered his height, his body always secondary to her, but know she could see that he was actually quite big. Not as big as Steve, but still big.

Dimly, she registered the news anchor sign off as the footage was left as the sole focus of the screen. Everyone around her coiled, waiting to see what would happen. She could hear everything now, every drop of rain, sob of pain and even Spider-Mans deep breaths.

The girl on screen had not realised the man was behind her, still standing on the ledge,

“Hello.” Spider-Man said seriously, very unlike his normally young jovial voice.

The girl flinched backwards at the unexpected voice, now a foot away from the ledge, she turned as quick as possible.

“Wha..what are doing here?” She asked surprised, apparently not knowing what else to say. Clearly she knew who the man was.

Spider-man didn’t say anything for a moment, his chest still heaving as his head tilted slightly to the left.

“Its a rainy day, shouldn’t you be be inside?” Spider-man asked, ignoring her question.

“No. I..I…I know what you’re trying to do. It won’t work.” She replied nervously. She didn’t seem to be sure of what she said, hopping from foot to foot.

“What am I doing?” Spider-man asked. He didn’t seem to be stiff anymore, but neither was he fully relaxed, but he seemed to be acting like it.

“Trying to stop me. From you know…” She trailed off, nodding her head towards the ledge as if signalling.

“You can’t even say it…I don’t think you really want to jump…You too scared to do it.” Spider-man said, his voice sure and loud over the sound of rain.

The girls face contorted to rage as she took a step towards Spider-man, “You don’t kno-.“

“Oh please. Of course I know. A lot of people know. Its practically a requirement of a hero to be depressed as a child.” Spider-man interrupted, his cartoonish eyes narrowing.

Struck, the girl stood silently, a look of befuddlement on her face. It seemed she expected the man to be cautious, not harsh. Spider-man wasn’t someone you who spoke angrily, and while his tone might now have been angry, it was close to it.

No one moved, until Spider-man slightly relaxed, whatever anger that seemed to have attacked him had left. In a soft voice, he spoke once again, “Look, whatever it is you’re going through, it may be tough…but you’re tougher.”

The girls countenance sagged as a questioning expression appeared on her face, “How do you know?” She had been left with just exhaustion, the fight leaving her.

“I don’t know. But thats the thing, I have to believe in you, in all of us. Otherwise, we get nowhere, if we don’t believe, we fall.” Spider-man spoke, a new passion lacing his words.

It was silent for a moment, before Spider-man spoke once again, “What’s your name?”

Surprised, the girl hesitantly sputtered out a name, “A..a…Alice.”

“Alice, you’re falling Alice. You’ve been falling for a long time, but now you gotta get up. You’ve lived through the worst day of life once before, you can do it again.”

Slowly, as the weight of his words fell upon the girl, her face crumpled and tears began to run anew. Sobs began to echo from the girl, her shoulders quaking as she spoke again, “You don’t know anything about me. Its so awful, its shit, its terrible, it would be better if I ended it.”

“NO, it would not! Think for a second Alice. All the lost opportunities, all the things you won’t be able to experience.” Spider-man exclaimed. He began to move towards the girl, slowly as to not spook her.

“Stop. Sto-“ She said a she flinched.

The man in red and blue stopped in his steps, bring up his arms in a show of peace.

“Alice listen to me! There is a chance, small it may be, but a chance that something great may happen tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then the next day, or the day after that, so on. You might meet the love of your life, fall in love, get married, have children who love you unconditionally. But if you jump today, you will have forfeited that chance.”

His words were laced with a desperation that could not be falsified. His eyes were now wide as he stood there, chest heaving from exhaustion.

“It doesn’t matter, no one cares.” She cried out, her head shaking from left to right. She was determined to not believe him, disregarding everything he said.

“I care.” Spoken with such conviction, the girl was frozen before shaking out of her momentary surprise.

“No you don’t, your Spider-man you don’t care… you can’t care for someone like me.”

“What, you think I do this for shits and giggles? That I’m out here right now, instead of at home because I don’t care. It would hurt me, so bad, so so bad if you took your life Alice.” It was now his turn to shake his head.

“Why?”

It was such a simple question, but Spider-man was looking as if it befuddled him. He was silent for a moment before coming to an answers, “Because your life is so precious, and I can’t bear to see it wasted.” His voice sounded clogged, making it sound slightly like growl.

“Be kinder to yourself Alice.” He continued.

“But, I have no one.” The words were spoken with resignation, a hopeless that could not be replicated by even the most loneliest of people.

“You have me.” Spider-man spoke softly.

The both of them stood silently, staring at one another, both pleading for the other to understand there plight, before Spider-man sighed softly. Slowly raising his right hand he gripped his bottom of his mask.

Tony was shocked. Peter was about to reveal his identity. He knew the kid clung tightly to his identity and it was one of the most important things to him, so for Peter to just randomly give it up was astounding.

Tony couldn’t let it happen, he knew Peter was doing this for a reason, but he probably still didn’t want his identity to be revealed to the world, it was probably because he felt like he had to.

Putting aside his shock for the moment he quickly told Friday to blur Peters face on every screen other than their own. Hopefully no one would be able to figure it out now.

The girl had guessed what the man was about to do, so surprised was she that she could do nothing but stand and watch, a visibly stunned expression painted over her face as the Man pulled the mask completely off.

The normally happy brown eyes were slightly red but had a determined gleam to them, his hair was soaked to the scalp, laying flat on his head. A black bruise was covering his jaw that was clenched tight

Gasping as she registered his young face, she girl could on stutter nonsensical, finally giving up on the hope that she could say even anything.

Spider-man was breathing heavily, his jaw still clenched as his brows kept furrowing and straightening, before relaxing. Slowly he raised a hand towards Alice, his palm up towards the rainy sky as he whispered, “I’m giving you my hand, will you give me yours?” The words sounded as if they were only supposed to be for her.

She didn’t move for a moment, before swiftly grabbing his hand and pulling herself into him. Immediately, she curled inwards as his arms came around her. Together they moved, the force of her sobs and cries shaking the both of them.

“I’m gonna be with you, every step of the way. We’re gonna be okay.” He kept whispering assurances, the girl nodding her head to each one, as if she was agreeing.

“Holy shit.” Clint said.

His voice clearly heard as the room was quiet. Everyone had relaxed once they realised that the girl was not going to jump. Nat had to breath a deep breath as she thought of what just happened.

Nat had to admit, she was wrong, Spider-man didn’t fail. But how, she didn’t understand. Why was Spider-man able to help that woman?

“Tony, how old is he?” Pepper asked dreadfully, her question intruding upon Nat’s thoughts.

Everyone looked to Tony, some with anger on their faces, while others who had deduced Peters age showing horror.

“15.” Tony said, forcing his tone to be without emotion. He didn’t seem to be fazed at all. As if it was perfectly normal for a 15 year old boy to be a superhero.

The number brought anger upon the faces of the Avengers. Tony, who had been able to read the room, looked as if he was mentally readying himself, squaring his shoulders, steeling his eyes.

“15! What the hell Tony, why would you recruit a child!” Rogers screamed.

“Of course he’d do it Steve, Stark always makes shitty decisions.” Romanoff sneered as she walked around to stand behind the couch. The rogues nodded along with her, and although Sharon was angry with Tony too, it seemed she wasn’t going to let that slide.

The anger slid off her face for a moment as she stared at Nat hard, “That shit won’t cut it Romanoff, say what you will about this, never say that again.” She stared back as Nat glared at her.

“How about we focus on the issue at hand!” Carol said, “How could you Tony?” Anger was gone, and appalled confusion remained.

Tony didn’t care what they thought, only about Pepper, so he turned away from their angry faces and to her, only to find her sitting on the couch, hand over mouth and tears in her eyes as she stared at him.

Immediately, he knew what she was going to say. Hurt lanced through him, crushing him till dust. He shook his head at her, taking a step before her voice stopped him,

“Why Tony?” Her voice was broken and it did unspeakable things to him.

Everyone else was looking on by now.

He stared at her, eyes betraying hurt, but he wasn’t going to back down. He wouldn’t accept defeat, and take everyones vitriol. Recruiting Peter was one of his best decisions, he had never second guessed it, not like he usually second guessed himself. To say it was a bad decision would be a disservice to Peter.

Yes it hurt Pepper, but it was necessary.

“I had to.” He said, the words were for everyone, but he only looked at her.

“Had to! How did you have to!” Clint asked, voice loud and skeptical.

“Rogers was on his way of out of the country, Ross was on my ass, what was I supposed to do?” Tony retorted, glaring down at the man.

Wanda who was sitting in her seat, now got up and stared balefully at Tony, “Oh of course you will talk about that. You always talk about that.”

“Yes I do little witch-“

“DON’T speak to her like that!” Rogers thundered, taking a few steps in Tony’s direction, standing at his full height, vein popping out of his neck with his hands balled tight.

At his reaction, everyone in the room tensed, Natasha grabbing a knife, Carol and Sharon shuffling a little closer to Tony. Everyone else sat tensely, watching carefully but not interfering.

The lines were drawn and sides became a little clearer. Even though some people did not agree with Tony, they would back him up in a fight.

Tony stared up at the man unflinchingly, “Or what Rogers. You gonna hit me. Its what you usually resort to, punching your way out.”

Rogers didn’t say anything.

Looking to the room once again, Tony took a deep breath, staring everyone in there eyes, matching the glares, “While we’re on the topic of mistakes. We all mistakes, I daresay I make the least of them, and when I do, at least I fix them. It’s fine to get angry at Tony, but what about what you all did huh? Decided to become international terrorists!” He kept going, ignoring Wanda’s scoff, “Little Witch broke my compound, Rogers and Barnes attacked the German forces, Sharon got fired from the CIA.”

He breathed deeply once again, looking at everyone, not caring for Sharon’s betrayed expression. Yes he loved her, but he was too riled up and it seemed old grievances that he thought he had worked past came back.

“And yes, yes I recruited a fifteen year old. But what could I do? More than half of you decided to join Rogers in his merry band of shits! I needed to even the playing field, needed someone fresh, someone new. Someone who could limit the destruction. And it worked. We practically destroyed the airport, imagine how much more damage could there have been if Spider-Man hadn’t been there!” He needed with a shout.

Rogers had stayed quiet his entire rant, getting angrier and angrier by each second.

“That still doesn’t mean you can just recruit a child!” He roared, everyone tensing once again and getting ready for a fight.

Everyone had grown more tense. Clint had by now assumed a defensive position, Wanda had red mist clinging to her hands, but quickly dissipated it once when she saw Carol stare at her hard. Barnes and Wilson had walked backed behind Rogers too.

“Isn’t that hypocritical Rogers. Your fine with Maximoff joining the Avengers, a child as you say-“

“Thats different, she’s twenty four years old.”

“Yet you call her child and excuse her actions. Even Spider-man is better than her!” Tony said, taking vindictive pleasure at seeing the woman face screw up in hurt.

“HOW DARE YOU!” Clint screamed.

Tony, who had too much adrenaline running through him from the fight, didn’t back down and attacked once again, “YES, I distinctly remember Peter laying Wilson and Barnes down on the tarmac. He did it while running his mouth too.” The man was nearly salivating with pleasure, smiling wide at Barnes’ growl.

“Oh, oh, is the winter soldier angry.” Tony mocked, his voice condescending and babyish.

At that, Barnes’ arm tightened and pulled back, nearly launching himself at Tony, before freezing at Carol’s shout, “ENOUGH!”

Everyone was left frozen, snarls on some faces, while others were teary and distressed. Carol had energy skimming along her hands, and she was staring everyone, especially Tony down with a hardened gaze and snarl on her mouth.

In the silence of the room, Scott spoke, his voice awkward and skittish, “Why is it such a problem that Spider-man is fifteen?

Everyone looked at the man, remembering the issue at hand. In their anger, they had forgotten why had caused all of this. As the conversation had progressed, their anger over the Spider-man’s recruitment had slowly brought up personal problems and rivalries. The fuel of their anger became about the Civil War, which everyone was still angry and mistrustful about.

“Because a child shouldn’t be in such danger Scott. They shouldn’t have to worry about saving people and politics and Ross. Its too big of a burden on a teenager.” Hope said to him.

“Oh.” He uttered, looking down at his shoes.

“Still Tony. How could you just do that. Make Spider-man like that?” Pepper asked, voice wobbly and shaky, tears flowing like rivers on her face.

Tony, who was locked in a stare down with Rogers, slowly turned to her, his face set in an expression of surprise and sadness.

“What?”

Pepper didn’t say anything, except sniffle and look away to the floor.

“How could think that Pepper, think that I could make Peter into Spider-man. As if I was even capable of making something that pure.” Tony said to her.

She looked back up at him, guilty and sad. She should be guilty, Tony thought shamefully. Still, how could she think that he would condemn a child to the life of a hero?

It was a shit life. He certainly knew that.

In the silence of the room, Friday’s voice came clear and crisp, “Boss, Spider-man is on his way. By my calculations, he is going to come through the northern window of this floor.”

Friday’s update shocked everyone and they quickly turned to the window, looking out to see Spider-man, feelings of anger, guilt and disappointment still lingering in their minds.

From Carol’s position, she could see a reddish speck zooming towards them, swing from building to building, it was growing in size and at some point became recognisable as human.

She was fascinated by the grace and fluidity at which the boy moved. Flying high in the air, then nose-diving towards the ground. The faith he must have in his webs, a creation of his own she had heard.

She had not met the boy during the Civil War, but when she had a couple weeks ago, she had immediately deduced that he was young. She had not known he was a minor, so it was of course a disheartening when she learned that Tony, a man she had come to quickly trust and like, had disappointed her in such a way.

Still, the boys age did not dim the impression that was left on Carol. After understanding that Spider-man would be sometimes working with them, she had decided to learn what she could about him.

She was happy with what she had learned. The boy was a different hero than everyone, and while she didn’t know details like his identity or origins, she didn’t need to. The boys morals were strong, he was capable of fighting big fights, maybe not alone, but he wouldn’t be alone, the Avengers could always help.

He was funny too.

As she watched the boy get close to the tower, still swinging against the backdrop of a weary New York, she heard a window open, which Spider-man obviously saw as he took one last swing, and flung himself towards the tower.

Worry clawed itself up her throat as she watched his body flatten itself. The error of margin was very minimal, and it would be hard to get through the window without hurting himself.

Her worry was not needed as she was left a little awed as he flew through the window, causing everyone to jump back and gasp from shock and horror, landing in what she assumed was his signature style, crouched down.

Sharon watched Spider-man stand up, ignoring the shock and terror painted on everyones face, “Mr Stark.” His voice was weary and dare she say a little scared.

Tony shook his head with a small smile, “I had Friday blur you’re face across the channels.”

At his words, Spider-man slumped in relief, before perking up a little, “Even this one?” He asked.

At the shake of Tony’s head, the blue and red hero nodded a little, resignedly, thought Natasha, almost as if he thought it would happen.

“Next time, don’t come through such dangerous way huh, gave us quite the scare.” Tony said, striking the rogues with his fond tone, the anger had all but evaporated from the man.

Spider-man looked at everyone, taking note of the fear written on their faces, “The window wouldn’t break.” He said guiltily.

“Not the window, you could definitely break.” Sharon blurted, wincing at the fact that she basically just called Spider-man weak.

The hero shook his head, “It wouldn’t hurt, I’d just stick to it.” Laughter in his voice, uncaring of the way he just weirded about everyone in the room.

Everyone was still looking at Spider-man with odd expressions on their faces, atmosphere still tense and renewed at the fact that the boy in front of them was basically a child, a fact which seemed awfully obvious now.

Spider-man seemed to pick up on the atmosphere, for he looked around the room, taking note of the everyone.

“So, everyone knows my identity huh.” He said, humming at everyones responding nods. “It was inevitable. Still, I’m surprised you haven’t blown up already. I can tell you’re close, Rogers looks constipated enough.” He continued.

Scott couldn’t quite hold in a snort at his words, shying away from Cap’s glare, uncaring of his anger, especially when Spidey looked at him at him and winked. HOW? He wasn’t too worried as Tony laughed and Carol smirked, apparently everyone else didn’t find it funny, if their angry faces were to go by.

“Tough crowd.” Spider-man said before lifting his hands up to his mask and ripping it off.

He shook his head and sprayed water, uncaring of the renewed tenseness of the room.

“God, you really are a kid.” Barnes said in a strange voice.

Peter looked around the room, water still dripping from his hair, clinging to his face, “You all look troubled?”

Troubled wasn’t the right word for it, Hope thought. Disturbed more like. Everyone was looked at his face, eyes roaming over his figure, trying to match the image they all had of the boy with the Spider-man they thought they new.

Hope didn’t like the way the bruise stood out against his pale skin. It was a reminder of the danger that this kid shouldn’t be in. It just wasn’t supposed to be on a face that young, didn’t belong there.

The only thing that made it worse was the fact that Peter acted like it didn’t bother him, like he was used to it, come to think of it, he probably was.

God, a child shouldn’t know how to take a punch.

It was wrong.

“They might be troubled, I’m not.” Natasha spoke up, a sneer on her face and eyes cold.

Peter looked to Natasha, face humorous, but Tony could see the defiant underneath. It made him proud.

"How about we skip the circus act and get to the part where you berate me and I ignore it all." Peter said lazily, checking his fingernails, which he also couldn’t seen because he was wearing gloves.

Carol was shocked, she hadn't expected the boy to be so brazen and rebellious. He looked sweet and kind, especially as he helped the girl from the news. But now that she looked closer, she could see defiance in his eyes.

He wasn't just a one dimensional kid playing at hero.

"Listen here son, what you did out there was good and all, but it...No more okay." Steve decided to skip the niceties and facade of comfort and decided to get on with telling the kid off.

He did not need to be a hero. He would only get hurt and hurt other people. It was Steve's job to ensure his safety.

"And who are you to order me around." Peter retorted.

"I am Captain America-"

"Yeah, that name don't hold much weight anymore you know. Not after you had a hissy fit when things didn’t go your way.”

Tony started to grin, oh, this would be so much fun. The last time Peter had laid into Rogers was good and all, but this time, he was even angrier, and it would be done in front of everyone.

As Carol watched Peter speak, she could see the rogues bristle and growl, and it delighted her. She never cared for the rogues, seeing as they were hypocrites, standoffish and plain rude. Plus, they liked to preach about loyalty and family while they betrayed the ones around them.

Rogers stood bristling with anger, but before he could speak up, Natasha interrupted, "Don't talk about things you don't understand kid."

Her voice was hard like steel, by now she had walked a few steps to come up just in front of Rogers.

Peter looked on with a forced calmness, but Sharon could see his jaw tightening, betraying his anger. She didn't know what would happen, but she didn't think it would be good for Peter. She wanted to interrupt, but she didn't think she should.

She wasn't in the good graces of any of the Avengers. Tony and his friends were not favouring her because she had helped Steve, while Steve himself was angry she had betrayed him by siding with Tony when all was said and done.

Only Carol and Hope trusted her, and that was only because she wasn't even a part of Civil War.

"Understand? What because I'm fifteen I don't understand?" Peter asked, derision in his tone.

"That's right kid." Clint butted in.

"If age is a measure of intelligence then you all should be really smart. But we all know you're not considering you decided to make the mistake of abandoning your family to join Rogers in his crusade of destroying public property huh?"

"OH THATS IT!" Clint screamed, beginning to move towards Peter before he was stopped by Carols shout.

"STAND DOWN Clint!" She shouted, glaring at everyone who had tensed.

The rogues had snarls on their faces, standing close to Clint, all tensed and in aggressive positions. Scott stood off to the side, a frown on his face, his hand in Hopes, who too had a frown.

"Yeah, stand down Clint, like a good little boy." Peter mocked, a satisfied smile on his face when Clint hardened his gaze.

"Now thats enough! Look son-" Rogers interrupted, looking disapprovingly at Peter.

"I'm not your son, don't call me that!" Snapped Peter, glaring up at Rogers.

Taking a step back at the look of anger on Peters face, something that surprised everyone, Steve put his hands up and spoke again, "Look it doesn't matter, you gotta stop this!"

"Alright, you don't get-" Tony tried to defend Peter as he began walking towards them, eyes narrowed and hands tight around his mug of coffee.

"No Mr Stark, I can handle this," Peter said holding his hand up to the man, stopping him in his tracks, "Why do I have to stop this?" He asked rogers, a growl in his voice.

"Because you're a kid, you shouldn't have to deal with this!" The man replied instantly, his voice a little louder.

"I decide what I have to deal with, and as you can see, I have done that!" Peter spat back, angry and bitter.

"That doesn't matter kid, you need to stop, do you see any other kids doing this?" Natasha butted in, wanting to calm the situation.

"Well I'll just have to be the first then won't I?" Peter said sarcastically to Natasha.

"That won't cut it! You're just some kid, you think this will make you cool or something?" Natasha said harshly, giving up on her feigned calmness.

"How dare you insinuate that I'm some dumb shallow teenager?"

Realising that she had hit a sore spot on the kid, she viciously kept going, "Then tell me why you're doing this huh?"

"I don't have to tell you anything!" Peter shouted back defiantly.

The adrenaline in her had her on the attack once again, trying to push Peter to his peak, aiming to make admit defeat, "It's some crusade then huh? You think you got powers so you need to be a hero, like your obligated! Guess what kid, you not obligated-"

"Of course I'm obligated!" Peter roared thunderously, his voice shocking everyone in the room.

Natasha flinched at his volume, and was left with shock across her face. She hadn't expected the boy to fight back, she had thought he would concede failure and listen to them.

Before anyone could say anything, Peter continued, "Of course I'm fucking obligated. I owe the world my gifts, to New York, a place that let me call it home!" Peter face was a nearly demonic, eyes blazing and mouth snarling. With hair crazed and teeth bared, a black bruise mottling his jaw, he didn't look like a kid anymore, thought Pepper.

"Okay, well, what about getting hurt, you could get hurt."

"You think I fear pain? I've been hurt a lot, and guess what," Peter said, looking around the room, "Every time I get hurt, fall, get punched, shot, stabbed, hit, I fucking smile and laugh and give as good as I got."

Pepper, who had been sitting, hand over mouth, tears streaming down her face, stood up and exploded at Peter, “Exactly, you’ve been hurt so much. You’re just a little boy, stop trying to justify this whole thing and admit you’re in danger!” Her faced was blotched and angry.

Suddenly, the room felt cold, a forced change caused by the drop in expression by Peter. The anger and viciousness had dropped and he as now staring at Pepper with a detached coldness, forcing everyone to to tense a little.

“Who are you talking to right now? Who is it you think you see? Do you know what I’ve done out there? I mean even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe it. Do you know what would happen if I suddenly stopped going out there? Criminals would run amok in Queens, crimes every where you look, my people would suffer, without me! No, you clearly don’t know who you’re talking to, so let me clue you in. I am not in danger Potts, I AM THE DANGER.” As Peter spoke, he moved forward slowly, the detached expression turning uglier and angrier by the second in contrast to the mounting horror on everyones else’s faces.

“A guy opens his door and gets shot, you think that of me, no…I am the one knocks!” His voice was guttural and tinged with insanity.

By now, Pepper had dropped back onto the couch, astonished terror written on her face as she tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Looking back to Natasha, he stared at her, speak in a dull voice, “All those piece of shit fucking scum out there, that skit around in the dead of night, they know I’m there. Watching, waiting, they know I can hear them, smell them, ready to bust their fucking legs and cave their noses in.” The intensity in his voice rose a little, making Nat gulp, “Do you know what my webs feel like against their skin Romanoff…tightly wrapped, choking, constricting…IT BURNS…I MAKE IT BURN.” He growled.

It was silent until Wanda hesitantly spoke up, her arms crossed over her chest, a small frown on her face, “There can’t be that much crime in New York.”

Peter gave a small humourless laugh, and without looking at her, spoke, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

Some faces looked confused at that, but the people that mattered understood. They knew that evil existed, it was just disguised by people, made to look like it wasn’t there or wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

“Well then what happens when you make mistake, someone gets hurt. What happens when you lose?” Natasha said, a tinge of scorn in her voice. It seemed that she was still trying to convince Peter.

Spider-man looked over at her, “Lose? I don’t lose! I win! I win! That’s my job! That’s what I do!” Peter was aggressive as he shouted, walking a few steps towards Natasha, destroying the calm facade he had put on.

It was troubling, thought Carol. It seemed that Peter was only focussed on crime fighting. Desperate and obsessed were the only words she could think to describe him right now. It was a dangerous path to go down. Peter clearly had no regard for his life and it could destroy him. He may forget his family, his friends, himself even. His whole life would revolve around fighting crime and it would spell destruction.

“If I hadn’t gone out there tonight, Alice wouldn’t be alive! She’d be painted in red all over the sidewalk! Why don’t you go out there? Huh? You sit in your fucking ivory tower, dicking around, having movie nights and shit! Call yourselves fucking heroes while half of you used to be fucking criminals, assassins, fucking HYDRA volunteers!”

Peter didn’t care that his hurtful, didn’t care for Scott’s cringe, or Wanda’s expression of hurt. He didn’t even care that the Black Widow had a face of rage at his words.

Peter’s feelings were coming out, driving home a truth that the Avengers were all to keen to ignore for so long.

No matter what I do, people will always bring that up. Thought Wanda, as hurt and shame enveloped her. Guilt rose up like a storm as she was reminded of her past sins. She had done wrong, she knew that, but she was trying. Maybe she just needed to try harder.

Clint, who saw Wanda’s sadness, rose up and bellowed, “Don’t you talk like-“

“You will be quiet! I am talking now. Not you!” Peter shouted over him, silencing the older man.

“What, you go on a couple missions a month, destroy a HYDRA base and delude yourself into thinking that you’ve saved the world! All the while ignoring the people suffering around you! Every time a global attack has happened its always your fault. People like SHEILD and The Avengers. Ultron was The Avengers, the Chitauri was SHIELD fucking around with an alien rock. In then end its the common people, the innocents who suffer! You drop a couple of buildings, destroy a few homes. Yeh, you saved their lives, but also destroyed their livelihoods! THEIR HOMES!” He finished with a scream.

“You don’t care about us.” His voice broke a little, and as he kept on speaking, his anger gave way to sadness, “You don’t care about the people who suffer, living cheque to cheque, getting mugged, raped or fucking shot in the street!” He was crying now, eyes red and raw, hands clenching at his sides as he paced in the little space he had.

“If you cared you’d be out there. Patrolling and running around, stopping criminals. But you’re not are you? And the thing is, nothing is stopping you! You have the resources, the money, the time and the fucking powers. Captain America could be out there, Black Widow, Hawkeye, hell all of you could be out there. But you’re not! Instead, you’re here, sitting on your fucking asses, preaching to me about goodness, morals and shit! So I ask you Captain America,” He spat the name like acid on his tongue, “to get off of your high fucking horse, to stop your bullshit sense of self righteousness, because your not the paragon of good anymore, haven’t been since you betrayed the world to go on a selfish crusade for you emo boyfriend!”

“Now I ask you all, why aren’t you out there? And don’t give me any of that its below our pay grade bullshit. Don’t claim that its not an Avengers level threat. That the police can handle because they clearly can’t. And don’t you dare tell me that your time would be be better spent on more important or dangerous things. Because I swear to god if Alice’s life wasn’t important enough for you, I will grab you flying metal disc you call a shield and shove it down your FUCKING THROAT.”

“What, cat got your tongue? Hmm?”

“New York looks to me now, and let me tell you, I will never let them down! I will be here, every single day, every night, till the day the fucking die. Till my last breath, I will fight and protect New York. No matter what happens to me. I don’t care if I get scarred, my body gets ripped apart, my legs break, I will still stand up and fight against any threat. Even if that threat is you.”

End