Chapter Text
࣪ ִֶָ☾.࣪࿐
Peter felt the cold press of the desk against his cheek as he was actively falling asleep in last period English. Not his strongest subject, but also not his worst. He probably should’ve been paying way more attention than he was; something Mr. Stark would definitely scold him about later on if he ever found out he had been neglecting sleep over patrol.
RING
The school bell jerked Peter fully awake. He rubbed his heavy eyes and yawned, his messy hair falling in front of his eyes.
He saw Ned running up to his desk as he collected his things and put them into his bag. “Hey man, wanna hang out at mine?” Ned asked very excitedly.
Peter shook his head. “Lab day,” he said.
Ned patted him on the shoulder, packing up his things. “Have fun." He smiled.
As Ned walked out of class, Peter threw his bag over his shoulder and followed.
The hallways were busy as always. He pushed through the crowds and made it to the exit of the school. He hurried downstairs until he saw a black, expensive car in the parking lot.
He crossed the busy parking lot and walked up to the blacked-out window, and it started rolling down to reveal Happy in his black and white suit and black sunglasses.
“Hey Happy,” Peter said excitedly, jumping on his toes. Lab days were his favourite days. He would spend all day cooped up in Avengers Tower, working on whatever he and Mr. Stark could get their hands on.
“Get in the back, kid,” Happy said, pointing to the back seat. Peter complied and jumped in.
🕷️
The drive to the Tower was peaceful. The quiet hum of the radio playing a song from the 80s. He leaned his head against the window, taking in the view of the New York streets.
They pulled up to the Avengers Tower, parking in the spaces reserved for Avengers and staff. Peter was still in awe of the tower; you could see it from halfway across town. It was that big.
Peter grabbed his stuff and got out, running to the entrance door.
“Be careful, kid,” Happy called after him, stepping out of the car.
“Sorry, Happy, I'm just so excited it’s lab day!” he exclaimed, flapping his hands as he bolted for the elevator, clicking the button a couple times before he stood in place bouncing on his toes.
As the elevator door opened, he stepped inside and scanned his badge so he could get access to every floor. The living floors were off-limits to anyone that wasn't the Avengers or friends, obviously. He clicked the button for the main floor, where the living area, kitchens, and classified labs were
As the doors closed, Peter saw Happy running up to them with an unhappy face.
“Seriously, kid," he said before the doors shut on his face.
Peter winced; he knew he should’ve waited and held the door for him, but he was too excited.
The elevator doors finally opened, and he bolted to the kitchen only to find no one there. His face twisted in confusion.
"Weird," he whispered to himself. It was normally where Mr. Stark would sit before he would arrive. Maybe he was in the lab already? or maybe in his room?
Suddenly his phone started ringing from his bag that was perched on his back. He swiped it off his shoulders and burrowed through all the textbooks and stim toys he had in his bag.
When he finally found his phone at the very bottom of the bag, the screen showed the contact.
“Mr. Stark 👌." He pressed 'answer.'
"Hello?" he said into the phone. He didn’t understand why Mr. Stark would be calling him if he was in the tower waiting for him to arrive.
“Hey, kid," Tony sighed. He sounded upset, and it made Peter worry. Was this the moment Mr. Stark was going to tell him that he was a failure and that the ‘internship’ was over?
Tony started, "An emergency came up; I can’t be at the tower today. I'm sorry." He sighed through the phone; Peter could hear the disappointment and guilt in his voice.
Peter's heart dropped.
This had thrown his whole routine off. He felt lost for a moment before he took a deep breath and said,
"It's fine, Mr. Stark. I have some homework to do anyways."
It wasn’t fine, but he wasn’t going to let Mr. Stark know. He had been looking forward to it all week, counting down the minutes and hours until the moment came that he would be on that elevator and be greeted by his mentor.
"I gotta go, Pete. I'm sorry," he muttered. Someone must’ve walked into the room before he hung up, leaving Peter in silence.
Just then the elevator pinged, the doors opened, and Happy walked out sighing, “Look, Peter, I meant to tell you in the car, but you looked so tired I didn't want to disappoint you." He walked over to Peter, frowning.
"It's fine." He gave a forced smile and happily sighed at Peter's obvious masking.
Peter walked out of the kitchen planning to run to the room. and hide all day He ran past the living area, the med bay, and the lab.
But there was a figure in the lab.
Mr. Stark didn’t mention to Peter about anyone being in today. It worried Peter; he imagined a bad guy sneaking in past Friday and stealing all of their prized works that could destroy the whole city if in the wrong arms.
If Peter didn’t stop this mysterious figure, Mr. Stark would be disappointed in him. This could be his chance to really prove himself.
He snuck up to the door, planting his body against the wall next to it, his head just barely visible from sight.
The figure was facing away from Peter, wearing a suit. They were tinkering with a vacuum bomb that made Peter nervous, if the figure set it off, it could blow up the lab, the culprit, and Peter.
He didn’t have his suit on under his clothes, but he did have his mask in his pocket that he pulled out and slipped on.
He took a deep breath and moved all the way into the room, having his web shooters pointing at the thief.
“Listen, man, put the bomb down, and no one needs to get hurt." He tried to sound intimidating; maybe Mr. Stark would watch over the CCTV footage afterwards and see how cool he is.
The person turned around to show….
Bruce Banner… The Hulk
Or Peter's biggest inspiration, his work was extraordinary and motivated Peter to be better and work harder; he was Peter's favourite Avenger (don’t tell Mr. Stark), and not even because of the Hulk!
“Dr. Banner…" Peter whined a action that would be terribly embarrassing if he wasn’t freaking out over having a avengers that wasn’t Mr. Stark in-front of him, lowering his hands. He curled in on himself, wishing he could disappear from this awkward situation but also in awe of this situation. He never imagined his first meeting with his idol would be a misunderstanding like this.
"Peter, what are you doing…?” Bruce had a puzzled look on his face, his eyebrows furrowed together.
Peter was surprised Dr. Banner knew who he was; of course, he didn’t know Peter's secret identity… He hoped, but he knew that Mr. Stark had mentioned his internship to other avengers and staff so no misunderstanding occurred.
Peter looked around the room for some type of escape. He looked at the exit to Dr. Banner and then back to the exit. “Um, I'm sorry about this. I thought you were a bad guy who somehow hacked past Friday and was going to blow up the whole lab. I'm really sorry again." He rushed out and squeezed his eyes closed, terrified of what the response was going to be.
But instead of screaming and turning into a green monster that would rip Peter into pieces, Bruce laughed. “Calm down, Peter. I'm definitely not a bad guy. Tony asked me to come today, but he said he was caught up with something." He ran his hands through his hair.
"Yeah, today is lab day, so..." He gestured to the machines and unfinished projects around the room. "We were meant to work on some things today as well." He frowned; he knew Mr. Stark couldn’t help it—he was a busy man—but he still felt bummed out.
but then
"I could work on some things with you."
It took a minute to register in Peter's brain.
Peter… working with… Bruce Banner…
Peter had never felt joy like this before. Since Mr. Stark had turned up at his apartment and asked him to come to Germany, he jumped up and down, flapping his hands. "You would do that?” He shouted a little involuntary squeak at the end.
“Of course, if it’s okay." Bruce smiled, twisting his hands. Peter noticed he fidgeted much like Peter's stimming that he did to regulate himself; it was probably Banner's way of regulating, though he thought neurotypicals were better at that kind of thing.
"Of course it's okay!” Peter exclaimed. Bruce smiled and tugged at his suit's sleeve. Peter ran up to hug him, but Bruce flinched away.
Peter's cheeks burned from embarrassment. "Sorry…" he frowned.
Bruce cleared his throat. "It's fine, just not a big fan of hugs," tapping his fingers on his legs in a pattern.
tap… tap…. tap…
peter tilted his head “Dr. Banner you fidget a-lot”
Bruce looked nervous at that and put his hands in his pockets, no longer making eye contact, not that Peter minded that part; he was never a big fan of eye contact anyway, but Peter started to panic. He didn’t mean to make him uncomfortable.
“Uh, yeah, I guess I do. Sorry." He bit his lip.
"Oh, you don’t have to be apologise it’s just something I noticed." Peter worried that he had said the wrong thing. He knew it was rude to point out people’s habits, but sometimes the words just spilled out before he could stop them.
Bruce cleared his throat, obviously ready to move on to another topic.
"Why don’t we get started then?”
🕷️
by the time they had started to get packed up from all the work they had done the sun was setting the orange and pink sky lighting up the hallways and rooms of the tower
Peter had been trying not to fall asleep for 20 minutes by now. Dr. Banner was rambling on about how he got 7 PhDs and how Peter could do the same.
Though he didn’t notice, Peter had zoned him out 10 minutes ago. Not able to keep his eyes open any longer, he knew it was rude to do so. Peter hated when he was info-dumping only to realise that the person didn’t care what he was talking about, but Peter did care! He cared a lot about what Dr. Banner had to say, but the temptation of sleep was bigger right now.
Finally, he let his eyes shut and dozed off.
🕷️
The next time Peter woke, he was in his bed and now changed into his Spider-Man PJs. Peter knew it was embarrassing to own PJs of himself, but he couldn’t help it with all the merch that was made of Spider-Man; he was just too cool!!
He was confused on how he got here. the last thing he remembered was working in the lab with Dr. Banner… Had Dr. Banner carried him all the way to his room and changed him into his PJs?
Just then, a knock came at his door, and in came Mr. Stark, a fond smile on his face at the half-asleep Spider. Peter's curls pointing in every direction and cheeks red from the heat in the room.
Mr. Stark wore a creased black and white suit, his top button undone, his hair ruffled. He looked rough. It made Peter worry. What was the emergency that had him away all day?
“Mr. Stark, are you okay?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
Tony smiled. “Yeah, kid, just a long day." He sat on the edge of Peter's bed.
Peter normally would’ve pried more, but his bones felt like jelly; his mind was still mostly asleep. He just lay down while Mr. Stark started stroking his hair.
"Did you carry me here?” He yawned, burrowing into his covers.
“No, kid, did you not come here yourself?" Tony laughed, finding the question ridiculous.
“No w’s w’ Dr. Banner," he slurred, stretching his arms out before bringing them back to lie at his head.
Tony looked confused. “Okay, Pete," he said, still stroking Peter's hair till sleep finally took over him.
࣪ ִֶָ☾.࣪࿐