Chapter Text
Peter never knew the feeling of having parents. When his parents died, he had Uncle Ben and Aunt May, but a few years later, Ben died too, and he was alone with May. She was nice, but after losing her husband, she wasn’t the same.
She grew distant from Peter, and soon she decided to pack her things and go. Peter was 8 and all alone. May left him a credit card, though, so he could afford food and clothes. She sent new money every month, and she also still paid for the apartment, so Peter never had to worry about any of that.
A few months ago, it was his 15th birthday.
May sent him a present.
It was a pair of socks from Sweden. He hadn’t heard a word from her in all those years, but on every Christmas and birthday, he got a present. She guessed wrong almost every time about what he liked He feels like she doesn’t even guess and just buys something. Peter would have called Ned so they could celebrate together but his birthdays are always in the summer holidays and Ned was in Hawaii. It wasn’t his worst birthday though. He is used to have no one to care for him and at least he could swing around as Spiderman that day.
“Mr. Parker, are you listening to me?”
Peter sat in his class and was watching an Iron Man video on YouTube while Ms. Warren was teaching math.
“What..? Uh—yes, I’m listening.” Peter’s lie sounded mor convincing in his head.
“What did I just say then?”
“Uhhh—”
“Next time I ask you, you better know the answer, or you’ll be in detention.”
Peter closed his Laptop and put his focus back on math.
”You heard Penis? You better know the answer or you’ll be in detention“Flash’s comment wasn’t even a good one, but he uses every opportunity to annoy Peter. For some reason, Flash thinks every day that it's a good day to finish Peter off. It doesn’t matter to Flash if it’s an insult or violence as long as Peter feels miserable because of him. It’s crazy because Peter could easily stop him from beating him up physically but he doesn’t and Peter can’t even explain to himself why he doesn’t stop him.
⸻
“Dude, have you heard that Tony Stark has a business meeting in Queens today?” Peter and Ned were on his way to the bus station often the school bell announced the ending of their last lesson. ”It’s just a few blocks away from your apartment!”
Peter’s eyes widened. Tony Stark had been his role model for as long as he could remember. He hates to admit it, but he somehow sees an father figure in him (probably because of his father complex but he would never admit that he has any complexes). After gaining his superpowers, he decided to become Spider-Man because Iron Man had inspired him to become a better man(kid).
“Really? That’s so cool!”
“Do you think we should go there?”
“Nah, bro, we don’t want Tony Stark to think we are stalkers or sum“(except Peter is ’a little‘ bit stalkerish, his whole wall is full of posters and he followed almost every step of the man until he was 12(the child discount for mobile data has been terminated and he is too broke to afford the adult rate)“And there will be dozens of paparazzi.”
“Yeah, yes you’re right. If I think about it, I guess my parents wouldn’t let me go anyway. We have a family dinner. I already know this is going to suck.”
“I’m sorry, man.”
⸻
Peter sat on the rooftop of his apartment building. He could see the building where the meeting was taking place. He could even see Tony Stark through the window. He felt slightly bad because he told Ned not to watch Mr. Stark, but Peter isn’t actively watching him (right?), he is out as Spiderman to help people but right now there is no one who need help.
Peter suddenly had to think about the time where he had met Iron Man once as a kid, when he fought robots. Actually, he had been saved by him after Peter had tried to act heroic while wearing his Iron Man mask and pretending he could blast away the robot that stood in front of him with pure imagination. Then Iron Man flew in front of him and blew up the robot. When he flew away, he said, “Nice work, kid.”
Peter would never forget that moment.
Suddenly, Peter was pulled out of his thoughts when his spidersenses went on and then heard a scream in an alley near the building where Stark was. He swung there as fast as he could and found a stabbed man. He seemed familiar, but Peter couldn’t tell where he knew him from.
He was still breathing, but he seemed unconscious.
“Everywhere is blood, that’s not good… Shit… Hello, sir. Can you hear me?”
No answer.
He picked the man up and swung him to the hospital, hoping he wouldn’t die on the way.
At the hospital, the doctors and nurses immediately put him on a stretcher and pushed him into another room.
“Spider-Man?”
Peter decided to stay at the hospital until the man was out of surgery. The police was already there and asked him a lot of questions, but unfortunately, he couldn’t answer any of them.
“Is he okay?” he asked the doctor who stood right in front of him and had just come out of the surgery room.
“He lost a lot of blood, but we were able to stabilize him. He will be fine, thanks to you.”
Peter felt like someone had released pressure from his chest.
“Thank you, doc.”
Spider-Man was about to leave when he saw the man’s face on a TV in the waiting room.
“… colonel of the US Air Force James Rhodes. His condition is not known yet. According to eyewitnesses, Spider-Man found him and took him to the hospital.”
He’s War Machine! How could I not remember his face?
“He is best friends with Tony Stark!“ the Spider told himself.
“Yes, he is.”
Peter froze.
The voice was unmistakable.
Tony Stark stood right behind him.
Peter turned around.
“H—hello, Mr. Stark. Iron Man. Sir.”
His voice was high-pitched and trembling. The boy had never been so nervous.
“No need to be nervous. I don’t bite,” the man chuckled. “Thank you. Thank you, Spider-Man, for saving Rhodey.”