Chapter Text
Two weeks.
Thats how long it had been since his Dad made sure that Peter, .. well Spider-Man joins his team or whatever for some kind of mission.
Two weeks since Peter had been so stupid to agree and continued to panic over it ever since.
Two weeks had passed and he finally got the message he was dreading so far.
Unknown Number: Be ready, someone will pick you up in 30.
Unknown Number: His names Happy, by the way.
Unknown Number: He'll pick you up at the spot we met last time I saw you. Seen.
Now, standing in his secret room surrounded by scraps of failed web shooter parts and half empty coffee cups, Peter pulled his suit and was muttering to himself in a panic.
"Okay you can do this. Just a quick trip to Germany. No one is going to find out that you're not home because Dad's not home and you'll be fine, Spider-man."
He went quiet for a second. "I'm gonna fuck this up won't I."
Peter sighed and took his phone once again.
Peter: Ned?
Peter: Ned
Ned: Whats up?
Peter: If someone calls u, like Pepper or something can you tell her I'm at yours?
Ned: Aren't you grounded tho
Ned: Also why? Where are you going?
Peter: I'll explain it once I'm back
Peter: Please dude
Ned: Fine.
Ned: But if you ghost us all again I'm gonna tell MJ and Harry
Peter: I love u dude. I owe you one.
Ned: ily2 and yes you do
Peter smiled to himself, doesn't even know when he arrived at the location just that he did and that Happy arrived soon after.
The teen heard a honk from a car below him, right on cue.
Peter grabbed his backpack and swung onto the ground awkwardly, a familiar black Audi was waiting by the curb. The window rolled down to reveal Happy, who was looking like he'd rather be anywhere else, which was kind of valid, Peter supposes.
"Spider-Guy? That you?" Happy asked, his voice flat.
"It's er-" Peter stopped then spoke up again trying to deepen his voice. "It's Spider-Man. Mr, uhm Happy sir."
Happy just stared at him with an annoyed expression. "Yes, that's, er me. The man, of uhm. Spiders."
Happy squinted. "You're weirder than I thought. Whatever, get in."
Peter climbed in, trying to ignore his stupid heart that kept pounding because he was just so damn nervous.
"So, uh, where we.. where are we going?"
"Airport." Happy answered. "Tony's already waiting for you, since it's urgent."
Peter froze at the mention of his Dad's name, he quickly unfroze himself and buckled himself into the seat. "Urgent. Right. Yeah, I love urgency."
The car ride was painfully quiet. The only sounds were the hum of the engine and the occasional buzz of Peter's nervous fidgeting.
When they finally arrived at the private airstrip, Peter was convinced he was gonna die. The Stark Industries jet was gleaming under the lights, the ramp down and the engines warm.
"Fancy." Peter muttered, even though he knows how his Dad's jets look like.
Happy started walking towards the jet. "C'mon, Tony is not the most patient guy out there. He hates waiting."
"Wait, you.. you're coming as well?" Peter asked as he felt his heart drop.
"I'm not letting you unsupervised near my boss' million dollar aircraft, kid."
Peter sighed under his mask. "Fair enough."
Happy gestured for him to sit. "Buckle up. We're taking off as soon as Tony gets on the comms."
Peter fumbled with the seatbelt. "Right. Buckle up. Safety first. That's.. always good."
Happy side eyed him, clearly weirded out. "Do you always talk this much?"
"Only when I'm nervous."
"Why are you nervous?"
"Who.. who said anything about me being nervous? I'm not nervous. I have no idea what you mean by that, sir." Peter's voice cracked out.
Before Happy could even respond, the jet's holographic display flickered to life. His Dad's face appeared on screen and Peter's stomach dropped. Tony's helmet was off and his exhaustion was obvious.
"Spider-Man." Tony said smoothly, like this was a completely normal day and that he didn't know that he literally recruited his own son to fight against war criminals. "Glad you could make, not that I doubted it, of course. Anyway we're headed towards Germany in case you forgot."
Peter swallowed hard. Don't freak out, Peter. Do not freak out.
He managed a nod once again trying to deepen his voice. "Of course, Mr. Stark, sir. Always happy, to uhm. Help out Iron-Man."
Happy groaned next to him which successfully managed to make him even more nervous.
Tony smiled on screen. "You've got some good instincts, kid. I've seen the footage, well to be fair a lot of people saw the footage. I mean the swinging around with that.. with those webs? You managed to stop a whole car and, well I think you've got potential kid. I might even recruit you for the Avengers once all this mess with the Accords is sorted out."
Peter tried not to wince. Great. My Dad watches my YouTube highlights. That's not weird at all.
"Thanks," He said quickly. "That means, er a lot, to me. I'll.. do my best, Mr. Stark, sir." Wow, it felt weird calling him that.
His Dad smirked faintly, the kind of smirk he would give Harley whenever the two would do something together. "We'll see if your best holds up in the battlefield, not that I think there will be too much serious fighting. Wheels up in five. Happy make sure he doesn't break anything."
The holographic screen disappears and Happy rolls his eyes. "You're lucky, kid. Most people don't get Stark personally calling them in."
Peter slumped back in his seat, heart still hammering. "Yeah." he muttered under his breath. "Lucky me."
"Peter?" Ms. Laine spoke up, her eyes were wide and she looked like she was shocked.
Peter looked up from the lego set he was building. "Yes, Ms. Laine?"
Ms. Laine looked haunted which made him frown. "Your.. your Dad wa-"
That's when Harley and Pepper burst into his room making the woman stop talking.
"Peter, Dad was found! He's on the way home right now!"
Oh. Peter doesn't know why he didn't feel as happy as he should've been.
What he doesn't forget though, is the way Ms. Laine expression looked like when Harley told him.
His Dad still had no idea who Spider-Man really was, it already made Peter cringe when the time would come. Maybe it never would come, even his friends hadn't figured it out yet.
The flight to Germany were the longest hours in Peter's life. Happy barely said a word the whole time, and Peter was spending most of the time trying not to hyperventilate.
When they finally arrived at the hotel, a lot of people were giving him weird stares, which was fair. He was in his Spider-suit after all.
Happy handed him a keycard. "Room 312. Don't touch the minibar, as far as I know you're still a minor. Don't blow anything up. And don't make me regret being here."
Peter nodded far too fast. "Got it. No minibar. No blowing stuff up. Not that.. not that I er- was planning to blow anything up."
Happy gave him a flat stare, then he walked off muttering something to himself.
Peter opened the door to his room, dropped his backpack to the floor, changed his clothes but he left his mask on.
He didn't take it off.
Not once.
His Dad looked different and there was a blue light under his T-Shirt.
Harley was crying when their Dad finally hugged him and Pepper looked like she was about to cry as well, Uncle Rhodey was staring at the whole thing fondly.
Peter felt out of place.
Ms. Laine was holding his hand though, quite tightly in a way that it started to hurt his hand.
But it was comforting, no one else ever held his hand.
"Peter, don't you want to go hug your dad?" The woman asked eventually but his Dad was still hugging Harley and his brother was basically sobbing at this point.
Peter shook his head. "He's busy with Harley and he looks.. weird."
The older woman smiled and she ruffled his hair afterwards.
"You're such a good and understanding boy, Peter."
Peter didn't sleep.
Every sound in the hallway made him jump, a door slam two floors beneath him had him leaping to the ceiling. He must've checked all the locks at least a hundred times, before finally curling up on the top of the covers, his mask still on.
Eventually, morning arose and Peter found himself talking to himself in the mirror.
His suit on, of course. "Okay, Peter. Deep breaths. Just.. pretend you're not you. You're not Peter, you are Spider-Man. Spider-Man doesn't have dad whose name is Tony Stark and is Iron-Man. Spider-Man doesn't get grounded and Spider-Man..-"
He froze as someone knocked at the door.
Peter felt his stomach twisting again. "Whose.. who's there?"
Happy's voice spoke up, tired and unimpressed. "It's me. You gonna open up or what, kid?"
Peter scrambled to the floor, mask firmly on his face.
A few moments passed but he opened the door up.
Happy stepped in, stared at him for two seconds before his look changed to horror.
"Did you sleep in that thing?" Peter felt lightly offended but he shook his head.
"Didn't you open the case?"
Peter frowned beneath the mask. "What case?"
Happy shut his eyes and groaned before he signaled for Peter to follow him, he opened the door to another room.
"Oh I thought.. I thought that was a closet?"
"That's the case." Happy said before leaving the room once again. "You'll better be changed in five minutes."
There was a small note on the case that said: Minor Upgrade, because the onesie you have is ridiculous - TS
The brunette opened the case and there.. was a freaking awesome spider suit in there.
"Oh my gosh." He said to himself. "Oh my gosh."
"This is so cool."
Peter had never been to a battlefield before.
Sure, he stopped muggers and carjackers and the occasional guy with a crowbar who really overestimated himself.
But this?
This was a whole other level.
This was an Avengers level.
With real superheroes.
And Tony Stark.
His Dad.
The second his boots hit the concrete of the Leipzig airport, his nerves nearly short circuited his brain. His hands were shaking so bad he almost missed his first shot of a webbing.
"Alright Underoos! You're up!" Tony's voice cackled through the comms.
Underoos.
Peter nearly groaned out loud, great. It's his first mission, and his Dad already gave him a stupid sounding nickname.
Still, he swung forward like he'd been doing this his entire life. The air rushed past him, the wind biting at his suit. And for a single moment the fear disappeared.
"Peter?" The voice clung out sounding like the bad monster, Ms Laine would always make it go away.
But Ms Laine was gone.
Peter kept hidden under his bed.
When suddenly..-
Then someone shot at him.
"Whoa!" Peter yelped, twisting midair to dodge Falcon's wing's slicing past. He fired a web and stuck them together, sending Sam spiraling before he regained his control.
"Who the hell is that asshole?!" Sam shouted.
Peter landed on a truck awkwardly, he frowned, he still had to get used to this new suit. "Hi! I'm Spider-Man! Big fan of uh-"
He paused as the Winter Soldier charged towards him, that wasn't creepy, not at all.
"-that guy with the really cool arm!"
The Winter Solider swung at him, and Peter dodged instinctively, maybe he just got lucky and the sound of metal against his web shooters rang out a sharp echo.
"You have a metal arm?" Peter said, his voice pitching with awe. "That is awesome, dude!"
The Winter solider blinked at him, well more like he glared because he was giving him a look that somehow rang out to Peter's mind that he wanted to kill him.
He webbed him to the floor and swung away. "Bye, bye, Mr. Metal Guy!"
Behind him, Tony's voice clung to the comms. "Underoos! Focus! We're here to fight not sightsee-!"
Peter flinched slightly. "Right, er, my bad! I'm gonna focus real hard now, Mr Stark, sir! I'm so sorry!"
He kept swinging until he saw Captain America but also his Dad, in his suit.
"Did you guys ever watch 'Empire Strikes Back?'" He yelled out.
"Jesus, Tony. How old is this guy?"
In one fluid motion, that even made himself gasp, he webbed captain America's shield right out of his hand.
"OH MY GOSH! I just stole Captain America's shield, oh my gosh-" This is what you get for forcing me to eat dinner with you guys, Mr Steve fucking Rogers, sir.
"I guess karma does exist after all.." He whispered to himself.
Peter stared at the star spangled disc in absolute awe.
"Woah.." he let out a breath. "Da- Mr. Stark! I stole Captain America's shield, do you want it?"
Cap froze, the he blinked.
Tony smirked, through his helmet. "Nice catch, Underoos."
The battle blurred after that.
Peter ducked under Visions beams, tripped Ant-Man, and barely managed to avoid getting flattened by a car.
Everywhere he looked was pure chaos.
Everything was far too close and way too loud.
Every time his Dad would yell out a command, Peter obeyed instantly, instinctively.
Just like a solider would obey their commander.
Just like a son would obey their father.
When the dust finally settled, and Team cap retreated, Peter stood on shaky legs, breathing hard. His suit was scuffed, his ribs ached and his mask felt far too tight around his face.
Tony landed beside him, faceplate sliding up. The proud grin on his face made Peter's stomach twist.
"You did good, Spidey." he said. "Not bad for your first battle, are you hurt?"
Peter shook his head. "Thanks, Mr. Stark."
Tony went quiet for a second, squinting his eyes and he stared at him in a way that made him panic.
Then he gave him a short nod before walking off to the quinjet.
Peter stared as he watched Tony walking away.
Something stirred inside him.
"Peter? Buddy, what are you doing under the bed? It's two am in the morning.."