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Peter’s knees almost buckled as he landed heavily on the penthouse balcony of the Avenger’s tower. Exhaustion clung to his body, the last of his strength starting to wane. It had been a long swing from the beach where Peter had left the burning rubble of Tony Stark’s plane and the Vulture. His aches and pains hadn’t subsided and he was still bleeding in most places, his homemade suit ruined beyond repair.
As much as Peter wanted to just go home, curl up in bed and sleep for three days straight, he still had one more thing to do. And that was to explain to Tony Stark, his mentor, how sorry he was about his plane and could they work out some kind of long term payment plan. Peter already felt terrible enough so he thought he may as well get that conversation over and done with before he could talk himself out of it.
Limping to the door, Peter was grateful that it was unlocked. He made his way inside and was immediately aware of how he was covered in sand, grime and blood. Peter curled in hands in front of his chest so he would’t touch anything. He shivered as the warm air washed over him. He hadn’t realised just how cold he had been, swinging all the way to the tower.
“Peter?”
Peter tore his gaze from where it had been wondering around the room to the startled voice of his mentor.
Tony was approaching from behind a long kitchen island, his face pale and his expression one of horror.
“Hey, Mr Stark,” Peter gave a wry smile. “Sorry to swing by so late.”
Tony’s moves were hurried as he approached Peter. When he reached Peter, his hand gently gripped Peter’s elbow, eyes moving swiftly as he took in Peter’s injuries.
“M’okay,” Peter said, blinking tiredly. “Mr. Stark, I just want to say that I am so, so, so sorry about your plane! The Vulture, Mr. Toomes, he was going to steal your tech to make weapons which were going into really bad people’s hands.” Peter took a deep breath. “And I tried to stop him from stealing it and I didn’t mean to destroy your plane! Mr. Toomes didn’t seem to care and well, it crashed. And I’m going to pay you back! I swear. It might take me a while but I can pick up more hours for my internship and I’ll do whatever you need until I’ve paid my debt.”
“Peter, why are you dressed like Spiderman?” Tony asked, voice quiet.
It was like a bucket of ice had been thrown over Peter. His whole body tensed, his aching muscles protesting. In his exhaustion and panic that he had destroyed his mentor’s plane, Peter had forgotten that Tony Stark only knew him as his intern, not as Spiderman.
When Peter had first applied to Stark Industries on a wild impulse, knowing full well that the company only took on college students, he hadn’t even expected to get a response. The application had been pushed from his mind when he took a field trip to Oscorp and came home with a spider bite that gave him superpowers.
So it had been a shock when he had checked his emails one morning on his way to school to find an email from Stark Industries sitting in his inbox. His hands had shaken and it had taken his new superpowers to keep him upright as he opened the email. He was pretty sure his heart had stopped beating when he saw the congratulations in the first line of the letter.
He had hardly been able to believe it. When he had reached school, he had tracked down his best friend Ned to pinch him, to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
“Dude, this is the coolest thing to ever happen to you,” Ned had gaped when Peter had shown him the email.
The statement had been retracted a few months later when Ned had discovered that Peter was Spiderman.
It hadn’t felt real as he waited for his induction day. Even when the day arrived and he had made his way to the Tower, where the SI labs and offices were located on the lower levels of the building, it had felt like a dream. Even now, months into his internship, Peter still couldn’t believe that this was his life.
He was the youngest intern that SI had ever had, but that didn’t stop the college kids from basically adopting him. They always included Peter, often making their activities outside of work time fourteen-year-old friendly.
What had surprised him most was the personal interest that Tony Stark had taken in him.
“Your application was the best out of all of them,” Tony had praised Peter as he had walked him out of the lab on his first day of his internship. “I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do kid. Something tells me you are going to change the world.”
Three days a week Peter got to hang out with Tony and to his immense surprise and pleasure, the two of them had developed a student-mentor relationship. He got to see a side of Tony that Peter knew he didn’t share with the other interns. They had inside jokes and Tony brought Peter snacks to the lab. Peter also knew that he was the only intern to see inside Tony’s personal lab, the genius showing Peter one afternoon after the others had left. They had spent hours in there, only leaving when Peter got a call from his Aunt, worried that he hadn’t come home yet.
It was when Tony had driven him home and personally delivered him safe and sound to his Aunt May did Peter feel that their relationship had really changed into something a little more familial.
Guilt had always gnawed in Peter’s stomach with the secret he kept from his aunt and it only grew as he kept it from Tony too. He had planned on telling Tony at some point, knowing that he was looking for the identity of Spiderman but he had always lost his nerve.
Peter didn’t want his aunt or Tony to be disappointed in him.
And by the look on Tony’s face, that ship had long sailed.
Peter opened his mouth to attempt to lie but nothing came out. His mind had gone completely blank, his heart starting to gallop in his chest. He begun to feel a little light headed, legs trembling.
“Easy kid,” Tony said, his grip tightening on Peter’s elbow. He slowly led Peter over to the pristine looking couch and guided Peter to take a seat.
Peter whimpered as he was lowered. “No - I’ll get it dirty.”
“I don’t care,” Tony said. “How badly are you hurt?”
Peter swallowed down his misery, his gaze dropping to his skinned knees. “Nothing that won’t heal with some food and sleep.”
“Food it is,” Tony said. He gently brushed his hands over Peter’s curls and quickly walked away.
Peter closed his eyes, wincing as he heard Tony moving about the kitchen. He heard the man’s phone chime with a message and Peter felt the lump in his throat tighten. There were a few more noises that Peter tried not to read too much into. A moment later and the footsteps returned and Peter felt a plate press into his hands. Opening his eyes, he blinked down at the sandwich.
“Eat,” Tony said softly.
Peter stared at Tony as he took a seat beside Peter. He stared at the genius placed a medical kit in his lap, opening the box. He stared as Tony pulled out some gauze and some saline.
“Eat,” Tony encouraged again when he looked at Peter again.
“But - but your plane,” Peter spluttered.
“Happy is taking care of it,” Tony said. “And Toomes is on his way to jail.”
“And me?” Peter asked.
Tony looked startled. “Why would you be going to jail?”
“I lied to you,” Peter all but cried. “I crashed your plane! I - I - I’m sure I there is something else but you’re not yelling at me and it’s freaking me out.”
Tony’s lips twitched as he fought a smile. “Oh kid.”
“I don’t understand,” Peter said quietly.
Tony gently pushed Peter’s sweaty curls off his face. “Kid. While I am surprised that you are the alter ego I have been chasing for months, I’m impressed you evaded me for so long for being right under my nose.” He winked at Peter, easing some of the tension in his shoulders.
“Do I have questions? A lot,” Tony continued. “And I’m feeling a lot of things right now but I’m trying not to be my dad, break the cycle and everything. So I’m not going to yell.”
“Oh.”
Tony let out a sigh. “To be honest, I’m trying hard not to freak out right now.”
“Me too,” Peter admitted.
Tony huffed a laugh. “What I would like to do is to watch you eat that sandwich while I clean some of these wounds. And I know you have super healing, which is boggling even my mind at the moment, I’d rather get these cleaned.”
“Okay,” Peter said. At Tony’s stern look, he picked up the sandwich and started eating.
He sat still as Tony cleaned the blood off his face and inspected his cuts and bruises. When the sandwich was eaten and the now dirty gauze thrown away, Peter wrung his hands together as Tony sat back down beside him on the couch.
“I’m sorry,” Peter said. “I wanted to tell you. I did! I trust you with this, with knowing who I am, but I just chickened out every time. I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me.”
“Kid, I don’t think you ever could,” Tony admitted. He scrubbed a hand down his face. “Does your aunt know?”
“No,” Peter whispered.
Tony groaned. “Aunt Hottie is going to kill me.”
“No she won’t,” Peter said quickly. “She likes you! Now that she’s met you and you made me do my homework before tinkering in your lab last week.”
Tony scrubbed a hand down his face. “Okay. This is what is going to happen. I’m am going to call your aunt. Tell her that you are staying the night.”
“I am?” Peter blinked with surprise.
“No way I can send you home looking like this,” Tony said, giving Peter a flat look. “I am taking you to the Med Bay where I can keep an eye on you over night and make sure you heal all the way.” His gaze flickered over Peter’s face. “Then tomorrow we are throwing out that homemade onsie -“
“Hey! Sewing isn’t my strong suit,” Peter protested.
“and I’m taking you home to Aunt May where, together, we will tell her of your alter ego and we will come up with a plan where I mentor you not only as a super hero but as my personal intern,” Tony continued.
Peter gaped. “Seriously?”
“And if we survive all that,” Tony kept talking, ignoring Peter’s interruption. “Then we will start working on a proper suit for you.”
Peter swallowed thickly around the lump of emotion in his throat. “Why? Why would you do that for me?”
“Because you are special, Peter,” Tony said softly. “And you mean a whole lot to me. I care about you.”
Peter blinked back the tears that threatened to fall and instead launched himself at Tony, hugging the man tightly. “Thank you.”
Tony hugged him back, cradling the back of his head with one hand while the other swept up and down his back. “Don’t thank me yet, kid. I’m siding with whatever grounding Aunt May gives you.”
Peter chuckled into Tony’s shoulder, the last of the tension melting from his body. This isn’t the way he wanted to Tony to find out, or his aunt, but he was glad that it was all finally out in the open.
“I love you, kid,” Tony whispered quietly.
“Love you too,” Peter murmured back.
Peter was sure that his future held many scoldings from withholding such important, life altering information, but he didn’t care. Because he had Tony and that was worth it.