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Peter rubbed his temples as he got into the elevator, eyes squeezed shut and desperate for the special noise-cancelling headphones Mr. Stark had made for him. School had especially sucked that day. He had three quizzes so he had stayed up until 3AM studying – especially because he had also gone out on patrol that night, pushing his studying even later – so he slept in, having to rush out the door with a headache and forgetting to grab him lunch. Because of that, he had to eat the school lunch which was not only disgusting, but also not nearly enough for his increased metabolism. And of course, Flash chose that day to be especially annoying, constantly poking and whispering to and shoving him all day until his senses were on fire. He hadn’t said a word to Happy on the drive over, opting instead to take in the blissful silence of the sound-proofed car.
When he finally made it to the tower, he was about ready to start banging his head into a wall to get it all to stop. Mr. Stark wouldn’t really like that, though, so he refrained.
The elevator stopped, Friday silencing the normal ding and announcement of the arrival as was programmed in the overwhelmed spider-baby protocol, which Peter used frequently despite how much he hated the name. He stumbled out of the elevator with his eyes still closed, dropping his backpack off his shoulder. He was supposed to stop at the lab first but he asked Friday to take him to the Avengers’ residential floor because he had left his headphones and the headache pain meds they had formulated that would actually work on Peter.
The sounds of the city beneath him and employees on nearby floors were already so loud that Peter barely noticed that some of the voices, the closest ones, were oddly familiar. He brushed it off, brain too tired to care. He walked blindly through the living room, knowing the area well enough to quickly move to the side table even without his sight. He was relieved to find his headphones still sitting on it, putting them on quickly and sighing in relief at the sudden silence. He waited a moment, swaying as his senses started calming down, breathing until he was able to open his eyes to find where he left his headache meds.
As he opened his eyes, though, he was surprised to find the living room noticeably occupied. Almost all of the Avengers – except Mr. Stark who was probably waiting for him in the lab or, if he was notified of the overwhelmed spider-baby protocol (which he probably was, given how much of a helicopter parent he was when it came to his mentee), he may be on his way up to find Peter – were sitting on the couch, eyes trained on him. Falcon, Hawkeye, Dr. Banner, and Ms. Maximoff looked surprised and deeply confused, Black Widow and Mr. Rhodey looked mildly amused. The Winter Soldier’s exact feelings were unreadable but he was noticeably tense, and Mr. Rogers was studying the boy intently.
Peter’s eyes widened as he processed the undivided attention of the world’s mightiest heroes focused on him. He let out a surprised squeak and, in a moment of panic, turned and ran out of the room.
He stopped when he got to his room (located through a hidden door at the end of the hall the rest of the Avengers’ rooms were in) and slammed the door shut. Luckily, the protocol was still in place, meaning his lights were off, black out curtains over the windows, and sound proofing in the walls turned on, letting him take off his headphones and breathe for a moment.
He had no idea how the team had reacted, given that he had turned away immediately and couldn’t hear anything, but he was sure it wasn’t exactly going to be brushed off. He had never met them as Peter, so to them, he was a random teenager that wandered into Tony Stark’s living room with the Avengers with his eyes closed, stole headphones, and went into a secret door they didn’t know about. He probably looked like a random squatter, not that Mr. Stark’s security system would allow for a squatter, but how else could it be explained? He couldn’t exactly explain that he was Spider-man and also Mr. Stark’s intern who also happened to live with him some times and seemed to have a sort of complicated dynamic with his mentor that was a bit deeper than mentor-mentee. Yeah, he couldn’t explain that. Especially because he didn’t get a chance to grab his pain meds before rushing out, so while the protocol was keeping his headache from getting worse, it wasn’t improving much either.
He decided that he was too tired to deal with it and simply opted to ignore the situation until he could actually think through his headache, crawling into his bed with the especially soft sheets and pillows, closing his eyes to take a nap.
He grumbled when Friday let out a soft ding to indicate a message for him (the protocol kept messages that weren’t extremely urgent from being read without Peter’s approval in case it was too harsh on his ears) and reluctantly accepted the request with a specific hand wave Peter had preprogrammed to be recognized as approval.
“Boss is asking to come in,” Friday whispered, keeping the message short for him.
Peter waved approval again, and closed his eyes as light came through the door as Mr. Stark slipped inside quietly.
“Hey Pete, you okay, kid?”
When Peter only grumbled again, the man handed over the bottle that Peter had forgotten in the living room in his rush. He sighed gratefully and immediately downed it along with water from his Star Wars themed bottle on his night stand.
He took a deep breath, finally content as it started working immediately. “Mmm, thanks Mr. Stark. That helped a lot.”
“No problem, kid. Now, do you want to tell me what happened?”
“What happened with what?” Peter asked, not sure if he was referring to his sensory overload or the run in with the Avengers, though he didn’t really want to talk about either one.
“Well, let’s start with what caused the overload. Did you get enough sleep? Eat enough? Did someone bother you?” The last question was laced with a threat Peter never wanted to see come to fruition.
“Um, yeah I just had quizzes so I didn’t sleep a lot and then I was late so I forgot my lunch so I didn’t eat enough either.” He opted not to mention Flash. The boy was obnoxious but Peter could deal with it. Plus, while Flash was annoying, he didn’t exactly deserve to die, but if Mr. Stark found out, his life was definitely not guaranteed.
His mentor looked at him for a moment, seeming to notice some sort of omission, but didn’t press it.
“Okay. You feeling better now?”
“Yeah, my room helps a lot. Plus the meds helped the headache. Thanks for bringing me those.”
The man nodded, but his lips pursed. “So, now about the other thing… I believe we’ve been made. What happened?”
“Well, the lights were too bright and everything was too loud so I went to find my headphones but I kept my eyes closed and I didn't open them until I had my headphones on so I didn’t really notice… all of them there. I kinda panicked and just ran in here. … you think they noticed?” Peter asked, smiling sheepishly at his mentor.
He let out a huff of amusement and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Yeah, Pete. I think they noticed. They told me ‘a strange boy came in with his eyes closed and took some headphones, and then disappeared into a hole the wall opened for him’ so they had some questions, as you can imagine. But I came here first. How much do you want them to know?”
Peter paused, considering. He wasn’t exactly planning on meeting the Avengers yet, but it was a bit too late to pull that back in. Might as well control the situation. Plus, it would mean he could talk to the Dr. Bruce Banner. At that thought, he perked up a bit.
“We can tell them about the internship. Leave Spider-man for later though. But do you think I could talk to Dr. Banner? He’s so cool.” Peter said, looking up at his mentor with wide eyes.
Mr. Stark laughed, draping an arm around his shoulder. “Sure, kid. The weird science stuff you two can talk about will actually help back up the internship thing. They won’t be able to deny that you’re a genius after seeing how you rant about that guy’s work.”
After a moment to make sure Peter’s senses were back to his normal level and his headache was actually mostly gone, they took a deep breath and walked back to the living room, Peter tucked nervously under the man’s arm.
“Alright, everyone. This is Peter, my intern. He’s a brilliant kid and I will kill every one of you if you so much as misplace a hair on his head.”
Peter flushed bright red at that, elbowing his mentor in the side. “Mr. Stark be nice!” he hissed, before turning to the group. “Hi, I’m Peter, but he just said that so I guess you guys already know that. Umm… it’s nice to meet you all.” Peter waved at them with a small, nervous smile.
The group let out a chorus of greetings, many still eyeing Peter curiously, which wasn’t lost on Mr. Stark.
“Okay, stop looking at the kid like that. If you have questions, ask and I’ll decide if I’ll answer.”
“Isn’t he a bit young?”
“Yes, but he is still smarter than all of us, except maybe me and Brucie over there, who, by the way, Peter really needs to talk to after this.” Dr. Banner looked startled at the mention and seemed to lose himself in a mixture of curious and panicked thoughts.
“How did you find him? I thought you didn’t accept applications from people without college degrees?”
“I saw him on youtube. A little… science project of his gained some traction and I was interested so I tracked him down and offered him the position.” It was technically true, Peter thought. “He is my personal intern, so he helps me with my suits, and yours for that matter, so be nice to him if you want cool equipment, be mean if you want faulty equipment. Up to you.” Mr. Stark shrugged with a smirk.
“Why did he come in with his eyes closed and grab the headphones?”
Peter flushed bright red, cringing at that as he remembered how odd it must have looked.
“Um, next question. That’s a personal preference of the kid and as long as he gets his work done with that genius brain of his, it doesn’t matter how weird or normal he chooses to spend his free time. Leave him alone.” Peter leaned into his mentor a little at that, unable to fully hold back his smile.
“What is that hole in the wall he went into?”
“Ah, that’s Peter’s room for work and whatnot. The door is hidden to keep it private, especially because he works on classified stuff. And, obviously, because he’s a kid and deserves privacy from press and investors and stuff that might try to corner him otherwise.”
With that, the Avengers seemed relatively satisfied, still studying Peter but with much less intensity. He was still a bit intimidated, but reminded himself he had fought a lot of them before, and even been on the occasional small mission with them when Mr. Stark let him, so really they weren’t as unfamiliar as they thought they were, nor were they as scary.
As Peter straightened a little, Mr. Stark nudged him forward. “Go talk to Brucie, kid. We’ll turn on a movie.”
Peter stared back at the man, eyes glittering with excitement. “Really, Mr. Stark? Thank you!” he turned and bounded over to the man, pausing nervously when he actually got close and offering his hand. “Hi Dr. Banner, sir! It’s really nice to meet you!”
Dr. Banner seemed genuinely surprised the kid actually came to talk to him, offering him a nervous smile back and shaking his hand. “Hi Peter, it’s nice to meet you too.”
“Oh my god I just shook Dr. Bruce Banner’s hand oh my god oh my god oh my god I can’t believe it.” Peter whispered, staring at his hand.
Dr. Banner let out a chuckle. “Are you a big fan of the hulk?”
Peter snapped out of his trance, eyes snapping back to the scientist’s face in surprise. “What? No not the hulk! I mean he’s cool too and all but I’m not talking about him, I’m talking about you! You’re the Dr. Bruce Banner! You’re amazing! I’ve read all your papers on antielectron collisions! Your work in clean energy is incredible! I’ve written 15 papers on your work and have 4 research projects inspired by it! You’re amazing! I would love to be able to work in a lab with you one day, you’re just so cool!” Peter’s eyes were wide and he was rambling at a mile a minute, practically shaking with excitement as the man stared back at him. Tears were coming to his eyes at the boy before him who admired Bruce Banner, instead of the Hulk, and actually knew his work better than most adults. Tony was right, this kid was special, far more than he expected.
For the rest of the night, Peter sat leaned against Mr. Stark on the cushion next to Dr. Banner as they excitedly chatted about Dr. Banner’s work. The other Avengers watched and listened to Peter cautiously, trying to decipher more about the boy, though they just gathered that he was 1) apparently incredibly sweet and 2) the smartest teenager they’d ever met. Captain America, however, kept looking back at the boy, as if he was trying to crack a code he wasn’t sure he had ever been given. Peter, though, didn’t notice. Instead, he was happy to end his horrible day surrounded by the coolest people on the planet and talking to his idol about his amazing work, choosing to ignore any weird looks in favor of continuing the conversation with Banner or paying attention to the Star Wars movie playing on the TV from one of Peter’s DVDs.