Work Text
1
Peter groans in annoyance as Steve -once again- decided that Peter was incapable of doing basic everyday things: such as making toast to eat as a snack. He even got out the strawberry jelly and everything! But no, Steve Rogers thought Peter (a junior in highschool, mind you) is not allowed to even hold a butter knife, nor touch a hot toaster oven. “Mr. Rogers, I get that you're being nice and all, but I can take care of myself.” He tried to politely remind the super-soldier, which obviously didn't get through Captain America's thick-skull.
“Don't worry, son,” he puffs out his chest like he's being a humble soldier who just saved somebody's life (you know the one). “Just go sit somewhere and I'll bring it out to you when it's done.”
“Never mind” Peter huffs under his breath, just loud enough for the super-soldier to hear, and storms off to his room; leaving a confused Steve Rogers in the kitchen. Peter had a secret snack stash hidden in his room anyways (thank goodness FRIDAY agreed to keep it a secret) for circumstances like this.
A few days later, as Peter is carrying a heavy box of his stuff to his room -he had recently started moving into the Compound as it was basically his second home- Steve snatches the cardboard container from him. “Mr. Rogers,” Peter begins to argue, “Did you forget I also have super strength?”
Once again, it falls upon deaf ears: “No need to fret, son. I've got it from here, you just go and take a rest.” And with that, Peter is standing alone in the hallway and growing more and more annoyed with everything Steve won't let Peter do. He decides to cool down by Spidermaning it up in the woods; working on his reflexes and reaction-time while swinging through the trees. He found himself doing that more and more lately.
The final straw breaks the day that the Avengers show up to the tower one last time before it's transformed back into a Stark-Industries building. Pepper had hired a new manager and Tony had decided that the tower was better used for SI than as an unused Avenger base. The team find themselves in the main room, joking and teasing each other like old times, but with Wanda, Vision, Bucky, and Peter sharing the fun. Peter had been starting to get overwhelmed with all the noise and decided to slip into his suit and head to the roof. What he wasn't counting on was Captain America following him; it just had to be one of the few people who couldn't get drunk enough to forget about him, didn't it.
“What are you doing up here, son?” Steve asks with a hint of command in his voice. He steps towards Peter cautiously, “Come back downstairs.”
Peter could feel his nerves tensing, and his blood starting to boil. “Don't call me son.” He hisses under his breath.
“It concern me when it comes down to your safety, son. Think of what Tony'd say if he were the one to find you up here instead of me.”
Peter clenches his jaw and curls his hands into fists, he was really losing his patience with Cap. “Call me son one more time!” Peter barks, venom dripping from his tongue with each word. Steve goes silent out of shock. Peter hadn't meant to shout quite so loudly (his own ears were ringing), but he doesn't take the time to apologise or correct himself and instead backflips off the tower, shooting a web at the nearest building.
Steve quickly runs up to the edge as he watches Peter swing off into the distance, breathing a sigh of relief to find that Peter didn't fall. He just couldn't understand what set Peter off like that.
2
The room was silent as Peter worked away on his homework, he had to hand write a thousand (at least) word essay about one of the critical lenses of Brave New World , one of the books he's recently finished since starting junior year. The essay itself wasn't too difficult, but what Peter didn't understand was why he had to hand write it. Sure, his teacher was old-fashioned, but this was a new low.Not too far away was Tony, who was working diligently on the latest Stark Phone, seeing what he could add to make it better than the previous model. (Unlike other companies, Tony actually liked to add useful features that actually worked to his products.)As Peter flipped the page in his notebook to keep writing, he quickly jolts backs in his seat and mumbles an “ouch,” while he suckles on his finger. His finger was slightly bleeding from the newly acquired injury. Tony glances over and furrows his brows in concern.“Are you alright, Pete?”Peter takes his finger out of his mouth and inspects it; nothing seemed off about the miniscule slice. “Yeah, just got a paper cut is all. My finger'll be good as new in a few minutes,” Peter assures his mentor. He had hoped that Tony would listen and drop the subject, but the world just seemed to hate Peter today.“Come over here and let me take a look, kid.”Peter groans as he stands up and shuffles his feet the few feet that was between them. He holds out his hand for Tony to inspect. “See, Mr. Stark,” Peter persuades his mentor. “It’s nothing more than a simple cut. I'll be fine!”“You're not the adult here, I am, and I say that you should go wash off your finger and I have a bandage here for it.” Tony wasn't even joking, his eyes were dark and serious. Peter opens his mouth to argue back with his mentor, but is cut off with a: “Don't you talk back to me.”Peter begrudgingly obeys his mentor's order and storms off to the bathroom; cursing the world, the paper, and even his English teacher for making them hand-write the essay instead of just typing it. By the time he runs it under cold water and is back in workshop, he finds all his work confiscated and Tony humming to himself as he's swiping through his [personal] phone. “Mr. Stark, where is my work?” Peter quirks an eyebrow at the older man, sounding like a parent scolding their child.“I've decided that you need a break from working so hard.” Tony answers back as he walks over to Peter and applies the bandage. There's a slight sting from as the medicine that coats the bandage comes into contact with the sliced skin. Peter sucks in a sharp breath and quickly pulls his hand away from Tony.“Mr. Stark, I need to keep writing! That paper is due in a few days!” Peter exasperatedly tries to convince his mentor, and absolutely failing at doing so. He gives up and lets Tony drag him out of the lab. As much as he hated being babied, Peter let it slide since it was Tony. That, and his mentor started up Solo for the two of them to watch.
3
“Hey kid,” Clint calls out as Peter passes by the couch. Currently, they were the only ones in this area of the compound. Tony and Bruce were in the lab, Thor was who knows where, and Steve and Bucky were sparing at the other end of the large building. “How about we test those reflexes of yours?” Peter stops in his tracks and thinks about it for a moment before answering with a ‘Why not?’ and hurrying back to his room to change into his Spiderman suit. Clint stands up and stretches, feeling some of his joints popping and cracking, and picks up his bow and quiver. He meets Peter outside, watching the kid seemingly talk to himself, although, everyone knew about Karen by now (not to mention Stark and FRIDAY), so it wasn't really that weird.“You ready, old man?” Peter taunts from behind his mask; Clint could hear the smirk in his voice. ‘I know it's not nice, but I'm just teasing him!’ He mumbles under his breath, just quiet enough for Clint to almost miss.Clint grins back at Peter as he pulls an arrow out of his quiver and aligns the arrow, “Who are you calling old?” His normal assortment of arrows were replaced with modified nerf ammo, meaning they had suction cups at the tip instead of a pointy disaster. They didn't need a bloody, gorey mess if Peter couldn't dodge one of Clint's perfect shots. “Ready, kid?” Peter gives him a thumbs up in answer. Clint releases the first arrow and immediately goes to notch the next. Peter easily jumps out of the way of the first one, allowing his senses to control his reflexes as he whooped and laughed due to the feeling of freedom it gave him. Now, Peter was no adrenaline junkie, but this was almost as much fun as fighting crime (and narrowly missing being stabbed that one time he doesn't talk about; especially to May and Tony).The arrows came by quicker and quicker with each one shot towards Peter. Clint felt himself grinning with each excited shout -and taunt- from this kid. That is, until their fun is interrupted by a gloved hand catching the last arrow. Clint gulps; a shy smile forms on his face. “Hey, Nat…”“What do you think you're doing.” Natasha growls at Clint, a fire burning in her eyes.Clint looks past her for a moment to see Peter looking unsure of what to do; the kid just stands there fidgeting with his head hung. “We were practicing and testing his ‘Spidey-Sense’ Tasha. I even made sure to use the nerf arrows!” Clint felt defeated even as he tried to explain himself. There was no changing Natasha's mind, it was like trying to punch through a steel wall.“You're on thin ice, Barton. маленький паук. Inside. Now.” Natasha orders, leaving no room for argument. Peter follows her with his head hung low, looking back at Clint one last time.
4
The alarm on Peter's phone goes off to signal that school would begin in twenty minutes, giving him enough time to finish getting ready and for Happy (or sometimes one of the Avengers) to drive him to school. Peter had gotten up early that morning to hang out in the lab with Bruce and to develop better webbing for his patrols. While someone [Ned] might ask why he wouldn't do this with Tony, Peter would calmly explain to them that Bruce has more experience in biology and chemistry than the engineer that Tony is. “Thanks for helping me out today, Dr. Banner!” Peter chirps after he helps clean up.“It's no problem, Peter, really. It's always fun to chat science with you.” Bruce smiles back at him. Peter was just about to exit the lab when he pauses, there was an uncomfortable tickle in his throat. Peter attempts the clear his throat, but it results in a small coughing fit that seems to fix his scratchy throat. He feels a hand grab his shoulder, and turns around to meet Bruce's worried eyes, “You didn't mention you were sick!” It had suddenly felt like he was being interrogated.“That's because I'm not, it was only a cough.”Bruce quirks an eyebrow up in suspicion. “Is this like the time you had pneumonia and only called that a cough so you could go and take a test at school?” Bruce offers in a dry tone.Peter puts on a fake pout and crosses his arms, arguing back: “That was different! I didn't even think I could get pneumonia! I assumed it was a cold, and no cold is keeping me from taking my math quiz!”Bruce clicks his tongue and slightly smirks at Peter, “You know what they say about assuming, that ‘it makes an ass out of you and me’. Besides you nearly killed Tony when you were dismissed looking like you rose from the dead. I almost had two dead bodies dumped on me that day!” Peter chuckles a little, he still felt a little bad for scaring Tony. “I'm still going to make sure you're not sick.”“But-”“No buts,” Bruce cuts Peter off. “Now go plant your butt down on the stool.” Peter begrudgingly shuffles over and sits. Bruce puts a hand to his forehead, and a thermometer in his ear. When the results came back as normal, Bruce forces Peter to open his mouth wide. “Say ‘ah’ so I can check your throat.” Peter rolls his eyes, but follows the instructions anyways. He knew arguing would be no use, and would make him even later than he already was. Peter cringes when a wooden stick is placed on his tongue while Bruce flashes a light into the back of his throat. “All clear kid,” Bruce hums as he dismisses Peter.“Finally!” Peter mutters to himself in exasperation. He runs out the door and grabs his backpack before racing down the hallway, past the living area, and out the compound doors. He flies into the backseat of the car, getting an annoyed look from Happy, and buckles himself.“You're late,” Happy scolds.“I swear that it wasn't my fault this time! Dr. Banner wouldn't let me go right away!”Happy rolls his eyes and began to driver away from the compound. 5Peter probably should've heeded everyone's warnings about being more careful…As he was walking, his foot got caught on the leg of the coffee table, and his spidey senses went off like crazy as he felt himself falling in what felt like slow-motion. His life flashed before his eyes, he was about to receive some major bruising from the wooden floors. Peter squeezes his eyes closed and braced for impact, except, it never came. He felt cool metal wrap around his torso, and somebody's breath against his neck, making all those tiny hairs stand on end. “Thank you, Mr. Barnes,” Peter mumbles in gratitude. Bucky lifts him back up, avoiding eye contact and just nods in response before leaving in silence. ‘How did he know to catch me?’ Peter thinks to himself.The next time a situation like this happens, Peter felt himself growing anxious due to the sheer amount of people. The Avengers (a few of them) were invited to a special event -not that Peter cared what it was- and Tony dragged Peter along, and ‘It's good for you to develop social skills!’ was the excuse given. Peter excuses himself from a conversation with some client of Stark Industries (Peter didn't really care who it was) and hurries towards the nearest exit. He was just reaching out towards the door when he was pulled away. Peter looks over to find Bucky dragging him.“Mr. Barnes! I need to go that way!” Peter said, exasperated by the situation, but Bucky never answer back. Instead, he dragged Peter into an empty hallway. Peter felt the anxiety ebb away slightly now that he was away from the crowd, but he still would have preferred the chilled evening. “Uh, thank you for getting me away from the party Mr. Barnes, but I can still handle myself. It's usually better if I get some fresh air.”Bucky turns his eyes away, as if he were afraid of scaring Peter away with an intimidating look, and mumbles: “It's not safe outside either. There's too many people out there too.”Peter didn't think about it like that, but it still didn't mean he needed saving. He was Spiderman for goodness sake, he could handle a few reporters!Peter is pulled from his thoughts when Bucky mutters something that Peter almost couldn't hear. “You remind me so much of him.”“Of who?” Peter asks just as softly, but Bucky walks away instead of answering, leaving Peter confused.
+1
“The building is collapsing and I detect that there are some people still inside!” Tony shouts through the comms.“Alright, I'll get them out,” Steve replies, but before he can turn around, he's pushed off to the side by a giant tentacle.The Avengers were currently fighting a giant space octopus and a few of the team members had made a few jokes before getting scolded by Nat and Steve.“Don't worry, Captain Rogers!” A young voice chirps in the comms. “I'll go save them since you guys seem to have your hands tied.”“Be careful, Underoos,” Tony warns Peter.Peter calculates the safest way to get the bystanders out with the help of Karen before jumping off the building and swinging to the next. Distantly, he could hear the Hulk roar as a loud thud erupted. Peter crashes through a window into a room full of scared people. “Alright everyone, make your way up to the roof in an orderly fashion and I'll escort you to safety from there!” Peter orders them, pretending it's like another fire drill at school.The people don't hesitate to rush upstairs as Spiderman guides them, picking up stragglers (literally). They make it to the roof just as concrete begins to bury the stairway. Karen calculates that there was only a few more minutes before the building collapsed. Peter quickly searches for a means of escape when he spots a slightly shorter building a few feet away with a fire escape. “Over there!” Peter shouts. “We have to jump to the next ledge, but don't worry, I'll catch you!” Peter hops over first and opens his arms to catch the first person, a young lady with long black hair who looks at him with fear in her eyes. She back away a few steps before running and jumping into his arms.Peter calculated that with there being less than twenty of them and only a few minutes, nobody could hesitate if they were to all safely make it. Everytime someone safely makes it over, Peter sends them down the fire escape and towards the police force. It's only when Peter gets notified that the building was currently crumbling when he notices there was only one person left. A teenage boy (a little younger than himself) was backing away, looking panicked. “I-I can't do it… I'll fall!” The boy shouts at Peter.“Yes you can,” Peter assures him. “I'll catch you, I promise!” When the boy still doesn't move, Peter hopes back over to the building, cracks forming under his feet as he runs towards the boy. Right before Peter can grab him, a hole opens up right under the boy. Peter acts quickly and dives in after him. Peter grabs ahold of the other boy and curls his body around him, using himself as a shield when they hit the hard ground.As predicted, Peter took the brunt of the impact, the pain traveling up and down his spine like an electric shock. “Are you okay, Spiderman?” The boy asks as he helps Peter up.“Yup, but we can't dawdle for much longer. We need to get out,” Peter winces through the pain. He puts a finger to his ear to activate the comm system and asks, “Hey, Mr. Stark. I need some backup over here. There's only one way out and I won't be able to support myself and this kid safely.“Reading you loud and clear, just give me two seconds.”Peter faces the kid and bends down slightly to get in eye level. “So, kid,” Peter starts, “You gotta trust me here. Iron Man is just outside this window. He will catch you.” The boy gulps and nods; having full faith in Spiderman. Peter checks out the window to see Tony giving him a thumbs up. Peter breaks the glass and balances on the edge before passing the kid over. Tony quirks his head in an unspoken question. “I've got my own way down, don't worry!”Peter backs up a few steps before charging out the window and free falling with his limbs spread out for a second before twisting his body and shooting out a web. The twist elicits a grunt from him as it jostled around his injuries. Once Peter safely hugs the side of the next building, he feels his spidey-senses go off like crazy making him turn towards Tony and the kid. A huge tentacle comes crashing towards them- and by extension himself- and Peter acts quickly. He glides towards it after pushing himself off the building and webs it, effectively pulling the tentacle away from the pair.As a result, Peter gets smashed into another building, feeling his right shoulder crack under the force. Peter cries out in pain, but pushes through the pain as he climbs up the building to scan the surroundings. He watches as the Hulk rips of one of the tentacles, causing the monster to roar in pain and anger. Thor blasts the giant octopus with the largest lightning strike that Peter has ever seen. He watches Tony fly back toward the beast after getting the kid to safety.And when the space octopus explodes into a disgusting mess of yellow guts, he cheers with his fellow Avengers.When the fight was officially over, Peter felt the exhaustion take over his body. “Hey, can I get a lift back? I might have taken a bit of a beating on my own, and the last time a tried to swing myself home when injured, I got yelled at “ Peter jokes into the comms, sounding out of breath. He was still fighting against the pain from his back and shoulder.“Yeah you were, just hold on a minute, Underoos.” Tony answers back. When he arrives on the rooftop, Tony watches Peter pull off his mask and wince, clearly in extreme pain. Tony carefully lifts Peter into his arms and flies him back to the compound. When Dr. Cho checks him over, she diagnoses Peter with a fractured clavicle (his shoulder), but his back wasn't anything too bad, just some bruising.Once it was just Tony and Peter in the room, Tony smiles proudly at Peter, and says: “Today, Pete, you proved how strong you are. Even though I hate seeing you injured, I'm proud of you. You saved all those lives and you protected that boy. I'm proud to call you an Avenger.”Peter felt himself tear up in happiness, wishing to do nothing but just hug Tony, but couldn't due to his shoulder. “Thanks, Dad,” Peter grins.