Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Feeling someone shaking me, I suddenly sat bolt upright just to be relocated back to the pillow after hitting my dads head with mine.

"Sorry! Are you good?" I said apologetically, trying to shake the sleepiness away.

"Yep, I'm fine," He mouthed with a face that clearly, well somewhat clearly as I did not have my glasses on, showed that he was not fine. In sign language, he asked, "Are you ok? You were screaming and thrashing."

I shrugged. My dad gave me a look like, "Hey, I'm here if you are not ok, But if you are good, I would like to go back to bed." I gave him a little nod, like saying I'm fine, and laid back down. He patted my knee and left to head back to bed.

I knew he had been dealing with this for years, so I didn't want to bother him if its not completely necessary.

I sat up again after my dad had left. I was still in a cold sweat. I looked down, and the tank top I had worn to sleep was soaked and sticking to me. I could feel that my blonde curles were matted to my forehead. I laid back down and rubbed my face, taking a few deep breaths to slow down my heart rate. I have been having the same nightmare for over ten years, but it still comes back to haunt me. It is annoying because I believe in forgetting the past and keep moving forward, but dreaming about it does not make that easy. That happened eleven years ago. I should not even remember it.

After some time, I give up on the prospect of sleeping and slide out of bed, stumble to my dresser, and remember that I had washed my school clothes the night before.

I go downstairs and through the living room to the kitchen. My dad is sitting at the table reading paper, and he glances up at me when I walk in. I grab my clothes and a towel from the laundry and head upstairs to shower.

Once in the shower, stand there with the water on me for like ten minutes contemplating life. I eventually get out because if I don't, I'll be late for school and get detention. Again. I throw on my uniform, try and fail to comb my hair, throw on my glasses and head back to my room. My room is a mess; My clothes are thrown all over, my bed is unmade, I have a half eaten bag of cheetos on my dresser. Ugh. My dad's rule is if your room is not clean on Monday, you can't do anything other than school and work that week. He isn't even here most weeks, so really this rule only matters like once a month.

I bolt around my room, picking stuff up and throwing it in places. He seems pretty out of it, so I hope that he doesn't look too hard and does a glance around.

After I finished, I went down stairs and to the kitchen. I grabbed an apple, jumped up on the counter, and started playing on my phone. Ow! I look up at my dad while rubbing my throbbing shoulder. He had thrown an orange at me.

"What the heck?" I try to say but then realize that I can't hear myself. My hands shot up to my ears. Crap, I must have forgotten to put them on, I think, as my dad gives me a pointed look. He doesn't like when I forget to use my hearing aids because I can't hear what he says to me. I give a small apologetic smile before hopping off the counter and racing back up to my room.

I grab them off my desk where I had left them the night before and put them on. As soon as I get them on, I notice the difference.

The perfect, peaceful silence gets replaced with the buzz of life. When I have my hearing aids out, everything is completely silent. When they're in, there is a buzz. Like even if it is under most people's quiet category, for me, it feels loud.

One nice thing about having a genius inventor as a father is that I get hearing aids that apparently they make me be able to hear just as well as people who can hear naturally.

I glanced at the clock. Crap. How did that much time go past? Grabbing my backpack, I rush out of my room, down the stairs into the kitchen, and grab my apple.

"Got to go, dad, see you later!" I called as I walked past him to the back door.

"Wait!" He called, looking up from the StarkPad he was working on. I have to go out of town this afternoon, so I'm not picking you up from dance tonight."

"What? Isn't this a little bit of a late notice?" I say, inching to get out the door so I am not late.

"Yeah, I got a call late last night saying I have to be there."

"Ok," I say, bouncing at the door. "I'm going to be late if I don't go now."

"I'd grab a jacket. It snowed again last night, and I would rather not have to deal with you getting frostbite." He said, looking out the glass door to the yard covered in snow. One of the down parts of living in northern Alaska is that it is always snowy and cold. I always forget this fact. I go grab my black hoodie and throw that and my coat on. I jog back to the door with my dark red beanie in my hand.

"Love you! See you when you get back!" I call over my shoulder as I walk out.

"Love you too. Don't forget that I'm not picking you up." He calls back.

"I won't!" I assure him as I shut the door.

The bitter cold of Alaska hits me the second I walk outside. I stuff my beanie over my red curls as I jog down the lawn towards the mailbox that's about a mile away. As much as I love all the land, it is a pain to walk across each morning.

The soft snowflakes stuck to the front of my "nerd" glasses making it hard to see where I was going. I was kicking myself internally for continually choosing to wear converse in the snow. By the way, converse is not snow proof.

I make it to the bus stop on time, thankfully, and stand there awkwardly. The yellow school bus pulls to a stop not two minutes after I had gotten there. I sit in the back in the window set and stare out the window.

"What up, short stuff?" I look up to see Charity. Charity has been my best friend since we were like five when she punched the guy who had punched me in the face. Aw, I know, goals. She was very violent, and it's kind of a miracle she has not been kicked out of school with how many people she has threatened.

"The sky," I say all wisely. Charity in turn slaps my shoulder:.

I scooch over so she can slide into the seat next to me. Charity is currently in the middle of protesting the cold weather by wearing clothes that are going to give her frostbite. Like today she is wearing an old disney shirt, a blue plaid mini skirt with blck tights. It's ten degrees outside. I don't even understand what she thinks will happen. Does she expect global warming to hurry up simply because she won't wear pants or a coat. It's like she has come down with the middle school boy disease.

"So did you do the homework? 'Cause I definitely did not, and would very much appreciate it if I could have a look at it" she knew I did the homework. I always did, and she never did. Every day she comes up and asked me if she can copy it, and every day I say,

"Sorry, you have to fail without me," I never fail. In school, at least. Or at least in my classes. I don't pass well in the whole being a social part of school. But I think a big part of it is that I am a five foot two male dancer whose best friend is a girl.

Charity and I are just friends, not anything else. And we are both straight. People tend to think that if we are just friends and dancers, that we are gay. Or some just believe we are in some secret relationship and lying about it.

Technically, we aren't even supposed to be friends. My dad kind of banned me from speaking to anyone if he let me go to a public school. But I ignored that because my life is bland enough without being completely alone.

The bus pulls up to Flowery Highschool, the only high school in about a hundred miles. It is also the most inappropriately named high school. Simply because flowers don't grow here, it is always snowing.

I go in the front doors and head down to my AP Calculus class. I am always the first in class because the other kids like to talk with their friends or eat breakfast until the warning bell rings, but since all my classes are AP, except history, which I am in with Charity because who can remember all those dates, I am always in the basement. Since Charity doesn't understand the importance of homework, she is in standard classes and has to dart between them to make it in on time.

The bell rings, and the other kids file into the classroom.

"Rue, how many times am I going to have to tell you no hat in my classroom?" The teacher told me with a pointed look.

"Sorry, Mr. Bulluck!" I say with a semi apologetic smile. Why my beanie hat is not allowed in school, I may never know.

"Don't forget again." he warned, "now class today, we will be learning about ……"

It's lunchtime now—my least favorite class of the day. You could ask ANYONE, and they would immediately say that lunch is the best time, but not for me. Why? You ask. Well…

Currently, I am sitting at the end of one of the long tables, eating my bologna and cheese sandwich.

"Hey Rue," Charity plops down in the seat next to me.

So yeah. My name is Rue. Honestly, I wouldn't put it past my dad to name me after the girl in Hunger Games. But it was not out yet when I was born. But knowing him, he could have invented time travel, read it, then named me. But then I would be slightly offended that he named me after the girl who died in the first one. I haven't even seen the movie's cause apparently, some person in it attempted suicide, so my dad won't let me watch it cause apparently I’m to mantally unstable..

Suddenly I feel a hand on the back of my head as it slams my face into the cafeteria table—pain shot through my face.

"Sup, Allen,?" ugh, wonder what happened to make him this nice today? Typically it's much worse. Anyway, standing in front of me was Blake Freeman. Blake was the six-foot-four football captain here at Flowery High. Why we have a football team when it snows all the time is beyond me. One of his favorite things to do is try and make my life miserable. I was just glad that my dad wouldn't be home tonight, so I didn't have to fake run into a glass door again.

"Get lost, Freeman," Charity says from next to me, shooting Blake a look.

Blake had been the one Charity had punched about ten years ago and had done it a few times since then. The most recent time was last month when he told her that she wouldn't dare do it now, and she had given him a broken nose, so he wasn't too eager to rile her up. Since then, Blake has been a bit wary of getting on her bad side.

Blake muttered something that sounded like "freaks" and walked away to go find his buddies.

"You know Stark, if you were smart, you would tell your dad you're getting bullied," She said dryly.

"Ok, one. I'm not really getting bullied, just occasionally getting shoved into lockers or tables,"

"What exactly is your definition of bullying?' Charity interrupted.

"And…" I ignored her, "If he did know about it, you know he would come down here and kill Blake."

"And you don't want that why?" I slapped her in the arm.

Charity is the only person who knows that I am Tony Stark's son. No one else knows. My dad's fiance, his best friend, Spider-Man, whom he thinks of as his kid, but that's another story. No one knows. It kind of makes me sad that my dad doesn't seem to care about me enough to tell the people he cares about. Oh well.

The rest of my classes went by without any incident. I got a hundred on my History test, so that was nice. Charity only got an eighty, but that's probably because she never does any of the work. After school, I ride back on the bus to my house. I start my hike up my driveway, feeling the snow in my shoes. I need to learn not to wear converse in the snow.

After about fifteen minutes of walking through the sea of snow, I can finally see my house. It is honestly kind of like a log cabin. It's pretty small, as it only needs to fit two people inside. Well, only one because my dad only comes around once a month.

I walk into the front room. There is a little table right inside the door covered in papers and stairs leading up to the second floor to the door's right. The front room opens up into two other rooms. On my right is my dad's office/study, which is located next to the stairs. It consists of a big wooden desk and the most sophisticated computer I have ever seen. My dad always complained about how he did not have a workshop here, but when I suggested he put one in, he said he didn't trust me enough to leave me here with it. He isn't typically here and generally stays in New York where his real life is, so he doesn't have much stuff here. On the left is the living room area. All it has is a small tv, my dad's leather chair, and the worn couch, or as my dad likes to call it, my second bed. Yeah, I sleep on the couch a lot. It's way more comfortable than my bed. Plus, my dad wouldn't let me get a tv in my room, but there is a tv by the couch.

I choose to go up the stairs and to the second door on the right. The first door is the bathroom, and the one on the right is my dad's room, but he is generally in New York. He usually comes up here and stays with me for a week-ish once a month. He tells all his people he is going on a business trip, but instead comes here. But sometimes, like this morning, something comes up, so he leaves early. So, I pretty much live on my own, and I'm only sixteen, and I have been living here since I was five and on my own since I was ten.

Anyway, I walk into my room. It looks somewhat like I would think a normal teenage boy's room would look like, well, with more dance posters and trophies, but oh well. It's still kind of messy from my rushed "cleaning" this morning.

I quickly change for dance, run down the stairs, grab some ramen noodles from the kitchen, and plop down on the couch. I fish the remote out from between the cushions and turn on the news station.

“Billionaire Tony Stark was spotted earlier today with a young teenage boy. They are seen eating ice cream in the photos taken from the scene. Although the boy's face can not be made out in this photo, it appears to be the same brunette that we have seen Stark with several times now. Is this boy a secret son of Stark? Is this the heir to Stark industries? The rumors are flying. There has been no comment from Stark or his fiance, Pepper Potts.”

Peter Parker, AKA Spiderman, or as the internet has dubbed him, the son my father never had. Wonder if that was the emergency that my dad had to leave me for, to hang out with his dream child. The news still didn't know who the kid was but assumed he was my dad's kid because his age would line up to when he was still in his playboy days. Random fact, I am only a few months older than Peter. Peter won't turn sixteen until August. I turned sixteen on the last day of February, well, at least the last day of this year because my birthday is the twenty-ninth of February. Charity loves this and often calls me a toddler.

Speaking of Charity, I hear her car honk. I grab my dance bag, push all the thoughts of my day away and head out.

Chapter Text

Tonys POV

I shifted in the uncomfortable airplane seat. I had paid good money for this plane, I should be comfortable. It is not entirely the chairs fault I can’t get comfortable, Peter says its because I’m old. Kids, got to love them.

The day was a total bust. I had been hoping to take Rue rock climbing this afternoon after he got out of school before his dance classes. He keeps saying how fun it is and maybe I’ll try, have fun and get in shape, but I got called to that stupid “emergency” meeting. It ended up being something Pepper could have handled without me, and she did. I got there and she said that she had ended up being able to take care of it herself. I tried to hide my frustration, if I had been at any other meeting, like I told her I was, I would have been overjoyed to get out of there early. But as it happened, I was with my secret son who I never get to see because it's a secret.

I tried to make the most of being in New York since even if I had flown back to Alaska I would be back here in two days anyways. Rue didn’t seem to mind, plus he seems to like being by himself.

Anyway, I had decided to take Peter out to get some ice cream. He had gotten the only one hundred in his history class, so I figured it was worth celebrating. Now I was on a private plane on my way to some stupid business meeting. It would have been enough had that been it, but of course it was to talk with the freaking rogue Avengers.

They were all still exiled, and I would very much like to keep it that way. But they had contacted me about this villain who’s lair they had found that we needed to raid. I was chill with raiding, I love to raid, but then Captain America was all like “no we must plan! Come out in the middle of nowhere and waste your time making a plan we all know you are not going to follow.” Crap. that's what this was. A whole lot of crap.

The plane was descending out in the middle of Canada, the designated meeting place for this crappy meeting. I was only about three hours away from Rue, maybe if I can get away I can go back and not have to deal with the Avengers.

I spotted the capsicle almost immediately with his new beard and worn out suit. He was standing right next to the runway my plane was landing on. The man I had once trusted with my life only for him to stab me in the back in Siberia. It took every ounce of my willpower not to call my suit and swash him like a bug. I have not completely banished that option, I'm just waiting to see what he wants first.

I put on what Peter calls the Tony Stark face, my overly confident façade, and strolled down the plane to meet Captain America.

“Tony,” The Captain said in his deep voice. “Glad you could make it. We have very serious topics to discuss,”

I simply nodded in his direction, acting like I won't even give him enough attention to speak and followed him to an unmarked black van. I had to bite back a comment about how this would appear to be a kidnaping if anyone saw him getting into this conspicuous black van. The drive lasted about forty-five minutes. The drive was silent, neither of us knowing quite how to approach the other. The van screeched to a halt in front of a huge warehouse. I again had to bite back a comment about being kidnapped.

Steve pushed the barn-styled door and I casually strolled in before he even finished opening it. Inside a bunch of crappy folding tables formed a U shape with the opening facing the blank white board. Next to the board was a smaller table holding a laptop. Around the tables sat the rouges, whom all sat looking at me waiting to see how I would react seeing them again. Natasha looked almost board, next to her Wanda was wearing a murderous look and Vision looked blank with his arm around Wanda. Sam, Clint and The weird guy who grew at the airport all look mad, but were simply more interested in what was going on. Bucky, thank goodness, was nowhere to be seen. I don't think I could have kept my cool with him here.

“Long time no see guys! Last time I saw you we were trying to kill each other!” I said in my full Tony Stark persona.

“Tony,” Oops, Steve's using his captain voice. Must have pissed him off, which was definitely not what I was trying to do. "This is serious. This villain, Michael Damia, is the real deal. We have proof that he is planning something big”

“Yes,” Natasha interrupted, “When we raided his warehouse we found plans. Plans to kill millions.”

“Whoa whoa, When you raided? Like raided in past tense? Last time I checked You called me here to help plan this raid?” I said exasperated. “I swear if came all the way out into the middle of nowhere for no reason,”

“Really Stark?” Clint spoke up, “You think we would call you if we wanted to raid? We have a super soldier, two assinans, a mutated teen and a winged dude. We didn't need some normal dude in a suit.”

Ouch. But I guess I deserved that one. I did have him locked in the Raft, even if I did help them escape.

“Well, If I am so worthless, why did you call me here?”

“Damia got away, We think he was there but heard that we were coming so he ran,” Natasha said matter of factly, “But in what we think was his office we found a flash drive. It was tough to get through its coding, so tough we almost called you, but we managed by ourselves. On the drive there were files for the Jericho,”

“Jericho? Like the missile I was kidnapped for ten years ago?” I cried out in shock, dropping my confident exterior. If this guy had gotten those plans, it could be very bad.

“Exactly. “ She replied, “But the problem for him is that he does not appear to have all the proper resources or an individual who is advanced enough to tell a team so they can mass produce them. On the drive though, we found what may or may not be a lead, which is why we called you here.”

“Tony,” Steve started “That kid who you are always seen with on television, who is he?”

“Peter?” what does he have anything to do with this? “None of your business. Why don't we focus on the task of saving the world from missiles!”

“On the flash drive we found the name of a school, a Flowery High. The school is in a very remote area and Damia could have kid there that we could use to get close to him to find out what and where and his planning. We want to send someone in to scoop it out.” Steve explained.

Flowery High, Why does that name sound so familiar?

“Ok makes sense, but what does Peter have to do with this?” The team shared a glance at my words.

“We need a kid to send in there. This Peter, whom we are guessing is Spiderman due to the timeline, looks the right age to play the part,” Steve said as if he wasn't suggesting sending a child out into a potential warzone.

“He looks the right age because he is! He is a fifteen year old, he can't go somewhere potentially dangerous,” I didn't even bother arguing about the Spiderman thing though because it would more than likely prove fruitless. “Plus, as you said, you know about him from television. This dude would see him and immediately attack because he would recognize Peter,”

“But the cameras never got his face. All we know is that he has brown hair like millions of other teenage boys out there” Steve pointed out. “If he ever even had a chance of being hurt we would pull him out of there immediately. Plus there is a high chance Damia had some random high schools name in there for no reason.”

“Ok I'll call him about it. But if he gets hurt..” I said threatenly.

“Don't worry, he won't,” Steve confirmed.

“Where is this school anyway?” I asked. Steve had said it was in the middle of nowhere but had not specified.

“It's out in the middle of Alaska, with is ironic that is is name Flowery High since it is always snowing where it is. It's the only school for like a hundred miles, there is that little people.” Oh no. No. No. No. There is no possible way that this is the school bad things were happening. “It is in this town called-”

“Amaerfalin,” I finished for him.

“Um yeah actually, how did you know?” Steve asked.

“I have done some business meeting over there a few times,” Business meeting lie takes the prize yet again.

I do not want the team in that town. What if Peter sees Rue and thinks he looks like me? What if he mentions it to the team and they look into him and they find out? What if they hurt him? I trusted Obadiah with him and he attempted to murder Rue, what if Steve wants to get back at me after Siberia? But if I say no, they are going to do this without me anyways. Maybe If I go along I can ensure nothing happens. I decided to just play it cool.

“I'm going to go call Peter. When do we want to infiltrate this high school?”

“Tomorrow,” Nat said bluntly. Honestly I had forgotten the others were even still in the room.

I muttered something about them not letting me know in advance, and pulled my phone out to call Peter. He answered on the third ring.

“Hey Mr. Stark! Hows you meeting with the avengers going? Is the raid going to be fun or did Captain America ruin it?” Peters shrill voice rang out.

“Raids off kid, turns out they didn't need a tin man after all. But we do have a development.” I told him. Gosh, his aunt better not kill be for this, “Did you ever get that passport?”

Chapter Text

Peters POV

My life is great, and that’s not even me being overly sarcastic. Money’s not been too tight ever since Mr. Stark gave me the internship, no serious injuries as Spider-Man recently and me and Mr. Stark have been just hanging out more and more. And now he wants me to help the avengers on a top secret mission. I mean, I’m practically an Avenger, but this is only my second mission. The only problem is that my last one involved attacking Captain America and friends and now we have to work with them. What if they resent me? What if they are tricking me with a mission just to stab me in the back both literally and figuratively? Oh the anxiety.

Annoyed with my thoughts I decided to go and bug Happy. He had offered to come pick me up and rushed over as soon as I texted that I would not be sending reports as I would be with Mr. Stark. For one fleeting moment I had thought that maybe Happy had finally warmed up to me and wanted to see me off on this adventure by flying me out into the middle of Alaska but the second he walked in he practically strutted right over to my “hot” aunt. They talked for over an hour before I quite literally dragged Happy away because I was going to be late. Ugh why couldn’t my aunt have been ugly? Anyway, back to me bugging Happy. He was sitting all by himself on Mr. Stark's private plane, like he liked, trying to ignore my existence.

“ Sooo, Happy” I say as I slide into the seat next to him “do you know anything about this mission I’m going on?”

“Kid, remember when I told you I don’t care what you do on the plane just don’t talk to me?” Happy said in annoyance.

“Dimly, but I honestly was not paying that much attention” I said peppyly “but seriously, all Mr. Stark told me was that I was going to Alaska and doing a mission for the rogues”

“They didn’t even tell me you had a mission until we were half way here. They forgot to tell me earlier you need a ride but thankfully for you I was already there to get you.”

“Also how did you get to my house so quickly?” I asked already knowing that he had been coming anyway to see May.

“Um, I was in the area” the dirty little liar. “I’m going to sleep kid and I suggest the same for you”

“Ok Happy” I say as I lay down in the chair next to him.

“Yeah no” happy stayed as he stood up and waltzed all the way to the other side of the plane.

Yep he is definitely warming up to me.

—————————————————————

“Hey Pete!” I hear Tony call as I walk up to the abandoned warehouse.
It seems kind of strange that the billionaire could not have picked a nicer place to plan something if this much importance. But maybe it is not that important, I wouldn’t know cause no one had told me what is going on.

“Hey Mr. Stark!” I called back as I jogged up to the barn like doors he was standing in front of. I gave him a hug even though I had just seen him last night. It amazes me how far our relationship has come when less then a year ago the closest thing I had to a hug was him opening the door for me.

“How many times am I going to have to tell you not to call me Mr. Stark, Tony is my name” he explained as he put his arm around my shoulder and led me into the warehouse.

I thought I was going to pass out when we walked in and I saw some of the world's greatest heroes sitting around a plastic folding table. There was Black Widow, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Antman and the Falcon. I could not withhold my inner fanboy when I noticed that Captain America in the flesh was standing in front of the white board. I shrill shriek found its way out of my throat and caused Mr. Stark to look over at me and raise an eyebrow.

“Well I guess now we see who your favorite is,” he said in fake disappointment “I’m pretty sure when you met me you asked why I was there. How come I didn’t get a shriek?”

“Well you aren’t as big as Mr. Captain America so I guess by the time I noticed you it was not as big of a wow” I said being sure to put all the cheekiness I could into it.

“Ah I like this one Stark” oh my gosh! The Black Widow just said she liked me! “You must be Peter” she said as she walked over and shook my hand. Oh my gosh! Black Widow is touching my hand.

“Um, yeah! I’m-m-m Pet-et-er” well there goes my shot at sounding cool.

“Alright team let's get Peter up to speed so we can get this operation on the road.”

————————————————————

“Ok so you are basically sending me undercover to find someone or something but we don’t know what it is?” I asked while raising an eyebrow.

“We are jumping into this blind sighted due to lack of information. There is no idea what Damia could be having to do with this school but it is best to assume it is dangerous.” Steve explained seriously. “All we know is that the name of this school was all over his computer. Maybe it is a coworker's kid, even his own or maybe it’s nothing but we have no way of knowing. We must go in with an open mind and find out who is there so that we can use them to get close to Damia.”

“So what you need me to become friends with the kid, but want that just hurt him when we stab him in the back?” I asked hesitantly.

“Well we have no way of controlling if you become friends. That would be ideal though, but there are a little over a thousand highschoolers and one you. Without us even having a description it would be nearly impossible for you to build a solid friendship. Tony mentioned that you have some sort of “Spidey sense” that alerts you of danger. Try and use that to find this kid. Your goal is to learn everything you can about this school. Who’s popular, who’s a nerd, what teacher is s loved and who is hated. All of this could lead us to him if we try hard enough.” Captain America said, “you will always need to be on guard and need to notice everything. Can you do that?”

“Yes Mr. Captain America sir!” I said with a salute.

He chuckled lightly.

“Call me Steve kid”

“Ok Steve” Oh I can call Captain America Steve!

I hear a loud voice exclaim “I have tried for two years to get you to call me Tony and it took him 20 minutes of knowing you and y’all are on a first name basis!”

“Mr. Stark it’s different,” I said while trying my best to look exasperated at him.

I looked back over at Steve.

“So when are we starting this?”

“We are flying out to the city tonight and you will go to the school tomorrow” Steve explained.

“Oh so not much time to prepare is there?” I said faking a laugh.

“Well we are wanting you to just be yourself and time is of the essence. The closer you are to being yourself the less suspicious you will be.”

—————————————————————

“Oh this is…cold” I said as I looked at the cabin that we will be staying in.

It was a simple log cabin with a long winding driveway. Here is the thing though. There was snow. Everywhere. It was at least three feet deep and it was showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. I am from New York, and even though we get snow it was nothing like this. This was the frozen butt of the world. I may be wearing a long sleeve shirt, hoodie, a jacket and a coat yet I still feel like I’m freezing to death. This was going to be a long mission.

“Well kid, get used to it. Unless you manage to find this guy super fast, this will be your temporary home” said Tony.

We walk into the cabin. It was a simple lay out. The kitchen and living room were on the bottom floor. I could not see upstairs but Mr. Stark had told me there were four moderately small bedrooms up there. I had asked him why he, a billionaire, had not gotten a bigger, more convertible of a place. Apparently this town is so small that when someone new moves everyone knows about it. So if they had bought a bigger house everyone would have been suspicious.

I brought my backpack up the stairs and went in the first door to the right. Inside were two twin sized beds stacked on top of each other as bunk beds. A dresser was pushed up against the tan painted walls along with a wooden desk. Over all the room was nice, but it was still freezing. The converters on the beds did not look that thick and I had only brought my taco blanket.

Tony walked into the room. Since there were only four bedrooms we were doubling up and Mr. Stark was with me since he was the only one who really knew me.

“You get top bunk cause I’m sure as heck not climbing up there,” tony said while plopping down on the bottom bunk.

I laughed as I climbed up to the top and buried myself in blankets.

“I’m guessing you are not a fan of the cold, huh Pete?”

“Spiders don’t thermoregulate well. But all the others are freezing so it’s not just the spider thing,” Tony laughed as I said this, “how are you doing so well though? You are just wearing a T-shirt and jeans and you seem fine.”

“Well for one I’m not part spider, and two I have been here on a couple of occasions and you build a tolerance to the cold” He explained. “Are you ready for tomorrow? First undercover mission and all that,”

“Well, I don’t know if it counts as undercover as I am using my own name and dressing the same as I always do,” I countered.

“Well, Steve wants you to be as natural as possible. Plus you know what a bad liar you are.” Tony explained.

“True”

“Peter! Tony! Get your butts down here so we can eat!” Clint called from downstairs.

“Alright we better go down. Come on kid” Tony said as he walked out the door.

————————————————————-

I woke up to the freezing cold. I had three blankets on, two hoodies and yet I was still freezing. I have decided that Alaska sucks. I let out a groan as I flipped to face the door. Ugh. I miss New York.

“Wakey Wakey!” I hear as Tony walks through the door.

“Ugh,” I reply to demonstrate my anguish.

“Rise and shine kid! This is your first day of school you can’t be late,” Tony said as he ripped my blanket off of me.

“But it’s cold!” I whined in protest.

“Well that’s Alaska for you! Now get up you need to leave in twenty minutes if you want to catch the bus” he called over his shoulder as he exited the room.

I layed in the fetal position on my bed hoping for some warmth before I finally got up and got dressed. When I looked in the mirror it appeared that I had gained a hundred pounds with all the layers I had on.

I bounded down the stairs to eat breakfast. Steve, who can apparently cook, made eggs for everyone. Considering that he was feeding his super soldier self, a teenager with an enhanced metabolism and five normal people, there were a lot of eggs.

“Ok Peter, repeat the plan for me,” Steve has continued to make me tell him the plan so that he is sure that I know exactly what I need to do.

“Pick up my schedule in the front office and go to all my classes. At lunch sit by any people who my spider sense goes off for or who brings any sort of suspicion. Try and talk to as many people as possible in order to limit our search down” I told him.

“Ok kid. Remember to ride the bus home, you are bus number fifteen ok?” Tony asked.

“Ok!” I replied, “I see you guys later!”

I stepped out into the bitter cold and felt the snow seep into my converse. I sighed and walked towards the bus stop.

Chapter Text

“5,6,7,8” the teacher yelled across the studio.

Charity and I have been in rehearsal for over four hours and I was one pas da beurree from falling over from pure exhaustion. I dance at an insanely small studio out here in Alaska where I am the only guy that dances, unless you count our male contemporary teacher. That pretty much means that I have to lift tons of people and I get many looks in any show I’m in. It had taken me years to talk my dad into letting me dance, I’m pretty sure he still isn’t that happy that his son would rather be dancing then doing school or whatever else he wants.

“Speed it up Rue!” Mr. Jackson yells across the studio from where me and Charity were going through our routine.

Mr. Jackson is my favorite teacher. He is the one that helped me fall in love with dance. He doesn't dance anymore for some reason that he wont tell us. Outside of teaching the advanced contemporary class, he also runs our dance companies rehearsal. Right now me and Charity are in with him working on one of our duets.

“Alright guys, Good job guys see you tomorrow” He tells us after we finish running it for what seems like the millionth time.

We both dip our heads in his direction and walk out while practically drowning ourselves with our water. It's amazing how it can be so cold outside yet so incredibly hot in here. For some reason the teachers are against air conditioning and seem to rather the students have a heat stroke then have air. And as uncomfortable as it is, I have to put back on all the layers of coats before I go outside so I don't freeze, but while still inside I feel like I'm about to burn to death.

“Hurry up loser I don't have all day,” Charity said as I was putting on my coat.

Since my dad flew back to New York this morning, Charity was giving me a ride back to my house. Her parents had bought her a car for her sixteen birthday, but my dad, a literal billionaire, couldn't get me one. He said he wanted me to be able to pay to get a car myself but we both know it's just because he is afraid I'll get hurt or something.

We both throw our bags in her trunk and get settled in the front seats before she heads out of the parking lot.

“So, how's life?’ I asked her.

“You mean since you asked that on the way here like five hours ago?” She said while raising an eyebrow at me. “It's been ok. Jackson worked us pretty hard back there.”

“I know and the piece isn't even for anything” I said while dramatically slumping in my chair.

“Why don't you just ask your dad if you can compete?”

“You know how he is Charity. He wouldn't even let me go on the field trip to the art museum that is in the town right next to here because he said it would be too ‘dangerous’,” I said, beginning to get riled up. “And even if he let me, he would never, ever let us compete together cause he doesn't want me to have any friends,”

My dad still does not know that I have Charity as a Friend. He told me he didn't want me talking to anyone at my school in case they could somehow hurt me. Who ever would have thought that Tony Stark, billionaire playboy Tony Stark, would be the world's biggest helicopter parent. He even manages to do it when he is not even in the same state as me. Normally I just go with it, but I was lonely and I made friends with the scariest person at school which has honestly helped a lot more than it hurt.

“While I don't agree very much with how much he leads you to fend for yourself and doesn't want you to have friends; I can tell he just wants what's best for you,” She says.

I sigh “I know it just I hard never having anyone,”

“What am I chopped liver?” She said while clutching her heart in mock pain.

I slap her arm.

“You know what I mean,” I say seriously.

“Yeah, but seriously I'm here for you ok little dude?”

“I'm not that little Charity,’

“You're five foot tall!”

“I'll have you know I am five foot two”

“Oh wow! You are practically a giant now!” She said lacing every word with sarcasm.

“Your one to talk, you're even shorter than me!”

“Well I'm a girl, so it's cute when I’m short. You're a boy so it just makes you look like you haven't hit puberty yet.”

“Hey!”

“What it's the facts”

“Your mean,”

“I know I'm the worst,” She says as we pull up to my driveway. I start sliding out of my seat to get out when she lightly grabs my arm.

“Don't do anything stupid ok?” I could see the genuine worry in her eyes. “Call me if you don't feel alright ok? Promise?”

I probably should have not told Charity about how alone I was feeling. She still remembers a couple years back when I literally always was on my own and my dad had never been with me. Long story short, my mental health was down in the gutter because I felt like I was all alone in the world. With Blake constantly telling me how worthless I was and me never seeing my dad and knowing that he was another family that he would rather be with then me, it just got to much. One night when I knew no one would be around, I tried to kill myself. It wasn't a spontaneous thing, I had been considering it for awhile. But apparently I had left something on the bus so Charity had come over to drop them off. She found me in the bathroom, unconscious, surrounded by blood that was continuing to pour out of my wrists. She called an ambulance and I somehow managed to survive. Well technically I died for a couple minutes, but they managed to get enough blood back in me and get my heart pumping again.

The hospital I was at had called my dad and he was here ridiculously fast. It's amazing that all it took for him to visit was me attempting suicide. I never told him what led to me making that choice, but it scared him enough to make him stay around more. He removed everything in the house that could even be considered dangerous. That includes knives of any kind, including butter, razors, any kind of medicine or cleaner. All of it was gone by the time I got released from the hospital. He stayed with me, literally watching my every move, for about a month. Ever since then though he comes for about a week and always hovers over me trying to make sure everything is ok. I've gotten better since then. I still have days, but overall I feel better. Charity has helped. At first I thought for sure she would never talk to me again and would think that I was some kind of freak. Instead however she was there waiting for me when I got off the bus at school two weeks later when my dad finally let me go back. She gave me the biggest longest hugs of my life. To this day have no idea how, but for that entire first week she somehow was there to walk me to each of my classes.

Ever since then though, she gets really afraid whenever I mention anything about feeling lonely or worthless. I offer her a small smile.
“I promise,” I say as I slide out of her car and grab my back from the back.

“See you tomorrow!” She calls from the street as I trudge through the snow.

It doesn't take very long for the snow to seep into my socks. I really need to learn not to wear converse in the snow. I eventually finish the hike up to my house and use my key to get inside. I throw my dance bag on the floor and kick off my wet shoes. I seriously need to go buy new shoes.

Shoving that thought to the back of my head, I go upstairs to get ready for bed

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have been tossing and turning for over an hour and can’t even see the notion of sleep in the distance. I have always had trouble sleeping when my dads not here, which is ninety percent of the time. I'm pretty sure I have some light degree of separation anxiety.

My hair is still wet from my shower and is clinging to my forehead. I clutch the hoodie I'm wearing in hopes that it will somehow comfort me to sleep. It's one of my dad's old MIT hoodies that I once accidentally stole when I had mixed it up for one of mine one particularly rushed morning. I had noticed as soon as I got on the bus because it was so big I was practically swimming in it. When I got home and tried to give it back my dad said I could just keep it. I was secretly kind of happy, not that I would ever admit that to him, because it brought me some kind of comfort. I think it is because it smells so much like him, expensive cologne and motor oil. I always wear it to sleep when he's gone cause it helps me think that he is close and not half way across the world. Yeah, I have some kind of separation issues.

But tonight my brain seems to have decided it would rather keep me up all night. Finally I give up, grab my blanket and hearing aids, and head down stairs. I jump onto the couch after grabbing the remote and turn on my all time favorite show, Psych. This show has been my favorite since before I can even remember. It's about this guy, Shawn, who is insanely observant and uses that to pretend to be a psychic. He works with the police to solve crimes and is super funny with his best friend Gus that he drags into everything. I always watch it when I can't sleep because I can practically quote every episode in my sleep. I've seen them so many times.

Right now I’m watching my personal favorite, the one when Shawn gets shot. There is really no valid reason for that to be my favorite; it just has always intrigued me how they did it.The entire episode is full of flashbacks of him remembering different lessons he had been taught then he uses them to try and save himself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My watch buzzes with an alarm to wake me up. I groan loudly as I flop off the couch and onto the floor. Psych is still playing so I must have fallen asleep while watching it. I really don't want to go to school. I have three separate tests today all of which are my important subjects. Ugh.
I pull myself off the floor and pick up my hearing aids off the table from where I must have subconsciously taken them off or something. I head upstairs and get ready for school. I don't bother cleaning my room because it's not like anyone is going to be here to stop me from doing stuff. On my way out the door I grab a cereal bar and head toward the bus. Once again my converse are soaked before I am even halfway down my driveway. I wait for the bus and hop on it once it gets here. Charity gets on at some point but I had fallen asleep the second I got on the bus.

Charity nudges me awake when we get to the school and I head down to my first class. I'm sitting in the back of the class when I see a new student walk in. I don't know who he is but I know that face from somewhere. I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how I would know him. I've never been to any other schools, and he definitely doesn't go here, yet I know that face.

“Rue how many times and I'm going to have to remind you?” Mr. Bullock says as he looks at me sternly.

I look at him blankly honestly not knowing what he is talking about. He seems to get the memo and circles his finger over the top of his head. My eyes widen in realization and I take my beanie off.

“Please remember next time” He said as he walked away.

The bell rings and the remainder of the students found their seats.The new kid is sitting three seats ahead of me. Mr. Bullock starts to call role.

“Mia Aboulute”

“Here”

“Rue Allen”

“Here” I call then immediately zone out.

I am so glad that my fake last name starts with an A so I don't have to listen for very long. I decided to zone back in hopes to figure out the new kids name.
“Joshua Rind”

“Here”

“Helen Porter”

“Here”

“Peter Parker”

“Here”

I choke on my own saliva. No way absolutely no actual way that Peter Parker was in here. It's impossible. He lives in New York, not Alaska of all places. I get out of my head long enough to realize then everyone is staring at me. I mumble an ‘I'm fine” and they all go back to what they were doing.

Maybe I'm hulutionating. Or dreaming or anything other than this being real life.

“Alright class please pay extra attention today because what we are learning takes up the majority of the test” Mr. Jackson announces.

I spend the rest of class just trying to figure out why the heck Peter Parker would be at my school.

Chapter Text

Well, this mission was a whole lot easier than I was expecting it to be. I thought with how many students there were in this school it would be nearly impossible to find someone even slightly suspicious, yet I found them in my first class.

The team had decided to put me in all AP classes so I would still be learning, much to my dismay. I still had to be in boring classes but here I'm freezing and don't have any of my friends with me. Gosh, i miss Ned so much right now.

Misfortunately I also have to remember all the information I learn because they could bug me because of some legal issue about all the students being minors. Nor could they watch video footage for that same reason.

But it looks like I shouldn't be here much longer as I have been at the school for all of two hours and I already have my first suspect. Now, I don't have a name, yet, but I know he’s a blonde who acted pretty shocked to see me. Why would someone who I’ve never seen before in my life be so surprised to hear my name.

I mean, there are some flaws to this theory. Like the fact that no one knows about my connection to Tony Stark so that means I’m just a random kid from Queens's this boy would have no of really way of knowing my name. And there’s the small problem that I have the literally the worst luck and no way I could find them in my first class. That last reason may not be as strong, but it’s still a valid argument.

The best course of action is to become friends with this kid, learn all of his secrets then present them to Mister Stark and he will be proud of me. Seems like a good plan. I go to him now he will think I'm jumping to conclusions, so best to do things my way.

Now was the prime opportunity. The bell for lunch just rang so everyone's getting to their seats. My eyes scan the crowd for the blonde boy and I spot him sitting with cute blonde girl over on the secluded side of one of the tables. I weave my way through the crowd and slide into the seat next to him.

His eyes widened comically big and he looked at me as if I was a ghost. The girl across from him squints her eyes at me and reaches out her hand.

“Charity,” she says in a crisp yet welcoming tone.

“Peter” I reply as I shake Charity's hand.

She sent me a quick smile before promptly turning and glaring at the blonde who was suddenly deeply invested in his food. When he didn't make eye contact she reached across the table to slap his arm. With a sigh he looked up and they started arguing with their eyes. I could practically hear their conversation.

‘Be nice’ Charities eyes were saying.

And then the blonde boy replied with ‘No! He is the mentee of a hero and I am a super villain's son/ mentee/ random child who knows him. ‘

‘But you are going to give yourself away by being rude’ she seemed to reply back.

‘But we are sworn enemies’ His eyes said.

This went one for several more seconds before he receded with a big sigh and turned towards me. And holy cow. You know that feeling when someone looks so familiar yet you don't know from where or who they look like. That's what I got off this kid. The way his dark brown eyes seemed to pierce my soul felt so familiar.

“Rue,” He stated simply and turned back to his food before I could place his face.

“Oh, like the girl from Hunger Games?” I say.

“So I've been told,” He said with a half smile before returning to his blank face.

I wonder how often he gets asked that. I mean I can only assume that it's a lot but I kind of want a number.

Charity starts talking to me. She seems pretty nice, unlike this Rue kid. His entire demeanor screamed that he didn't like me and wanted me gone. But did I leave, no. I am completely dedicated to this mission and right now he is my number one suspect. Mr. Stark will be so proud if I could catch this guy. Well, technically not this guy, but use him to find out where his dad is so the Avengers would catch Damian.

I made the decision to not focus on Rue for now because it's pretty apparent that he was not going to give me any time of day. Charity is currently rambling about how stupid it is that they have a football team in a place that is constantly covered in snow. She kept running her fingers through her long blonde hair and her blue eyes sparkled more and more the more into her rant she got. I was honestly having trouble focusing on what she was saying.

Wait, what! This is a mission, not actually school. I can’t have a crush on someone when I'm doing official Avengers business. I know how I was with Liz, I had severe issues focusing whenever she had been in the room.

She stopped talking and looked at me expectantly. Oh crap, did she ask a question. Frick. Ummm. I don't know what to say.

“Aw who is the boyfriend Allen?” I hear a voice seer.

I turn as a tall muscular boy slides in the seat on the other side of Rue. Rue sighed loudly and rolled his eyes.

“Get lost Blake,” he says and continues to not look at the other boy.

“What did you say to me?” Well that got this Blake guy mad.

Blake grabs Rue's shoulder and pushes it, hard, so that he is forced to face him.

“Feeling brave aren't we?” Blake said while glaring at Rue, “I dare you to say that to my face pip squeak,”

Rue looked him dead in the eyes and said “Get. Lost.”

My spidey senses started going haywire and I was panicking on what to do. Right as he looked like he was going to straight up murder my number one suspect, Charity spoke up.

“Freeman, get lost or I'll make you,” She said coolly.

That seemed to freak this guy out. Before he got up he mumbled something in Rue's ear that vaguely sounded like a death threat. He got up and joined his buddy's.

Charity glared at Rue with such intensity that even MJ would have run from it.

“What in the name of life itself were you thinking!” She exclaimed, “He was about to beat the crap out of you!”

“Sorry, I just was in a really bad mood,” He muttered.

Charity looked like she was going to comment on that but then the bell rang and we all went to class.

While walking I decided I'd let Mr. Stark know about Rue because even if he wasn't some villain's son, it would probably be safer to let him. As much as I want to independently save the day, I knew I couldn't.

Chapter Text

Tony's Pov

“If you don't stop pacing, Stark, I'm going to shoot you with an arrow,” Clint called from the couch.

‘If you shoot me your mission is going to go up in flames because the kid is most certainly not going to cooperate after that,” I replied while continuing to pace.

Peter got out of school almost an hour ago. I know the buses are slower here due to all the snow, but an hour? What if he had gotten hurt or Damia had found out he was there and was torturing him. I'm so lost in my panic that I don't even notice the front door open.

“I'm back!” Peter's voice breaks through my spiraling thoughts.

I stop my pacing and look him over from where he stands in the doorway. He looks fine, no cuts or bruises. Doesn't look traumatized.

He shut the front door and collapsed on the couch next to Clint. The Avengers, minus Clint and I who were already in the room, all quickly gathered in the living room. I sit myself on the coffee table in front of the couch so I can see Peter's face.

“So son,” I resisted the urge to snap at Steve to not call Peter his son, “How did it go? Was anyone acting suspicious?”

“Um, it went pretty well,” He said in a way I could tell there was more to the story.

“What happened?” I said sternly.

“Ok, nothing really happened, there was just this kid who had a bit of a reaction to my name,” He said.

All of us Avengers were immediately concerned. I could feel the panic crawling up my insides. If someone knew his name, that would mean that the Avengers would be outed and that Peter's life could be at stake. Oh crap. I never should have let him be a part of this mission.

“What was this kid name?” Natasha asked,

“Um Rue something. I didn't get his last name but I bet looking at the school records or whatever you could find it,” Peter replied.

Oh. OH. Never mind, he’s fine. My stress immediately goes considerably lower. Not some crazed villains kid, just my own.

“We should look into this kid, make sure he checks out,” Steve said sternly.

Dang it. No can do. I mean, no matter how hard they look, they are not going to find anything suspicious about him or about my connection to him, because there is almost no information on his file. But that means they will have to look into him personally where they will notice a sixteen year old kid who lives all alone. At that point that will proberally turn the kid over to CPS or something. I can't let this happen.

“Maybe we should wait til we get more info on this kid before researching him,” I offered.

The Avengers all stared at me.

“But this kid could be dangerous,” Stave explained, “We don't want to put Peter in danger,”

I open my mouth to reply but Natasha beats me to it.

“I think Tony is at least partly right. We haven't even heard anything about this kid from Peter yet. Let's hear all he knows then we will make a decision on whether or not to dig deeper, at least for now, ” She explained.

The Avengers all nodded their agreement and turned towards Peter. Peter sighed.

“Well his name is Rue and He is in my first period class,’ He began.

“Which class is that?” Asked Wanda.

“Um, AP Calculus” He answered before continuing, “The thing that made me suspicious was that he literally choked when my name was called for attendance”

“Are you sure that it was related to you or could he have possibly just swallowed weird?” Asked Steve.

“Well he looked at me like he had seen a ghost and when I sat with him at lunch he was super rude and uncomfortable,” He replied.

“Wait, you sat with this kid?” Steve asked, suddenly more alarmed.

“Well, yeah. He was my only suspect so it seemed like the only logical thing to do,” He said.
Steve ran his hand down his face.

“Peter, you don't approach the person you think could be dangerous, that's what we are here for. Let us research these people before making direct contact” He explained slowly, “But whilst sitting with him, did you learn anything about him?”

“Well, he was sitting with this girl and they seemed pretty close,” Peter started.

A girl? But I remember that one of my rules with Rue being allowed to go to school was that he was not supposed to talk to anyone outside his teachers in case they might be dangerous. No, he wouldn't directly put himself in danger like that after I specifically told him not to. Natasha's voice broke me out of my thoughts.

“Was this his girlfriend?”

“I don't think so, they didn't give off that vibe if you know what I mean,” Peter explained, “But they were obviously close. They did the eye thing all best friends can do,”

“The eye thing?” Inquired Steve.

“You know where they can talk but without using their mouths. You have to know someone for a long time to be able to do it. It's all about eye expression,” He said before continuing, “There was also this other kid who threatened to kill him,”

My mind blanked at that. Maybe this wasn't my kid, he surely would have told if he was being bullied to the point of death threats.

“What do you mean a kid threatened to kill him?” Clint asked seriously.

“Well, it was at lunch and this guy came over and asked about his boyfriend, which I think he was talking about me. But like it wasn't a nice thing, it was like he was mocking him. But then Rue told him to go away which apparently is not normal. Things started to escalate and the girl told him to get lost,’ Peter stopped for a breath before continuing, “The guy seemed pretty afraid of her, don't know what that was about. But before the guy left he whispered something in Rue's ear, and since I have super hearing and all I could tell it was a death threat.”

Panic gripped my heart. What if this kid had actually gone through with his threats? I mean, lots of threats are all talk no action, but still. I feel my breaths start coming out short. I can't lose him, not again.

1,2,3,1,2,3 . I start to count to even out my breaths. I can distantly hear the team still talking about Rue and how to deal with this but my mind is in a haze of panic. I have to go check if he's okay, I finally decided. I stand up dramatically and state heading towards the door.

“Woah, Stark! Where are you going,” Steve said while following my suit and standing up.

“Out,” I replied as I grabbed a baseball cap that was hanging next to the door.

“You will blow our cover,”

I gestured to the cap.

“It will be fine, I'm just running a quick errand and will be back in a couple hours as most,” I then walked out of the cabin and headed over to check on the kid.

Chapter Text

Potatoes

“No, he’s evil, Charity!”

“I think you’re a bit dramatic, Rue,” she replied and continued walking around the track of the gym.

Technically speaking, we were supposed to be running the mile, but I simply didn’t have the motivation or cardio ability to do that. I mean, I guess my grades don’t matter cause it’s not like I’ll ever be able to move away to go to college. PE is stupid anyway and should not be required.

“But Charity, he is!” I exclaim, “he is probably here to enslave the school or add more PE.”

“Peter seemed nice at lunch, doesn’t seem like the enslaving type,”

“You don’t know him,”

“Neither do you,” She looked over at me exasperated, “He seems nice, and he probably has a good reason to be here.”

“You make a good point,” I realize, “he does have to be here for a reason. He lives in New York; for goodness sake, he wouldn’t be in Alaska for no reason.”

“Do you think your dad has something to do with it?” Charity asked, “I mean, you said he thinks of him as a son,”

“I mean, I guess that makes sense on how he would get here in terms of transportation, but that doesn’t explain the why. My dad would never bring anyone he cares about here.”

“He technically brought you here,”

“My point exactly,”

“Maybe he finally decided to introduce you guys,” She suggested.

“I doubt it, may he’s here for educational purposes,”

“Our school isn’t exactly known for having smart people, though,” Charity pointed out.

“You realize you go here, right?”

“My point exactly,”

“Allen!” I look over and see the coach waving me over. “Your parent is here to pick you up.”

I look over at Charity with panic written on my face. If my dad is here, it may have something to do with Peter. Maybe he doesn’t hate me and will introduce me to him.

I say my farewells to Charity and head to the office. After letting the office lady know that the coach had relaid her message, I headed into the parking lot. I spot a sleek black Audi and go in that direction. No one else in this town would have a car like that.

“Hey,” I say as I slide into the front seat.

“Hey,” he mutters.

Ok, I’m in trouble. I don’t know what my dad found out about, but I know he knows I did something wrong. The only question is what.

As my dad drives silently down the road in the direction of our house, I contemplate every terrible thing I have ever done in my entire life. Turns out I’m not a good kid. Huh, no wonder my dad tries to cut me from his life.

“How was school?” my dad asks.

“Fine,” I mutter, still trying to figure out what it did wrong.

Finally, I gave up and caved.

“Ok, what is it?” I asked, exasperated.

“What is what’”

“What is the reason that you are mad at me? And picking me up from school? And sending that Peter Parker kid there?”

“We’ll talk when we get home,” he said sternly before watching the road in stony silence.

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When we get back home, my dad directs me to the couch. I sit there watching him pace back and forth, trying to find the right words to say. As soon as I start to relax on the couch, thinking that this will take a while, he begins.

“Why?” he asked simply.

“Why what?” I stammer out, my nerves from earlier returning.

“Why do you purposely go against the rules I have set for you!” My dad shouted.

I try to push myself further back into the chair, hoping for it to swallow me. Despite what the media says, my dad really isn’t the angry type. Or at least not with me. It was always soft words growing up, and when I became a teen, there were more nonchalant responses. But him yelling at me was never a popular thing. As a kid, I thought it was because my dad loved me so much that he felt he didn’t need to result in yelling, but when I got older, I realized it was merely because he didn’t care enough to get mad.

“I put rules in place to keep you safe, and now I’m hearing you’re just brushing them off!” My dad is fuming.

I don’t even know what I did. Well, I know that I have barely listened to any of my dad’s safety precautions,’ but I don’t know which ones he found out about.

“Dad, I -,” He cuts me off.

“No, this is your time to be quiet and listen. I don’t need an explanation on why you didn’t follow my rules. You went out and talked to all these other kids. What if they had noticed our resemblance? What if they had kidnaped you and tortured you for information?”

“But I don’t know anything!”

“The villains of the world don’t know that. And even if they didn’t want information, they could easily just kill you to get revenge on me?”

“Who on earth would know about me, Dad? I live in the middle of nowhere. No one will ever find me.”

“There are things going on here that you are not aware of, and trust me when I say that it’s in your best interest to listen to what I’m saying.” He said, with a raised voice

“Why don’t you, I don’t know, tell me what’s going on? You can’t just keep expecting me to live in isolation without giving me a valid reason,”

“You don’t need a reason because it’s none of your concern. This is a problem for me to deal with.” He explained angrily, “You should only be worried about keeping your identity as my son a secret, which means no interacting with anyone unless completely necessary. You begged me to let you go to school, and I let you on the condition that you were to talk to none of the students. And now I’m hearing you have this girlfriend and are receiving death threats?”

“Are you spying on me-”

“Pater mentioned it when he was reporting back to the team because he is at your school looking for anyone suspicious. And guess who his number one suspect is right now.”
My dad took a deep breath before continuing in a much calmer voice.

“Look, I’ve tried to keep you safe. But obviously, it wasn’t enough. I guess I can’t blame you. I am the one that put you in this situation.”

I looked at him, confused. He looked pained, which was a bitter opposition to the anger he had had moments before.

“Wh-”

“Pack your things. You leave in the morning.”

“Wait, what? I’m moving? How on earth is that going to help anything? I have to interact with people. You can’t just lock me up in another house by myself and expect me to be fine.” I yelled at him.

My dad looked at me with sadness written on his features.

“I’m not sending you to another empty house,” My dad took a deep breath and looked at the floor, “I called one of my buddies down at CPS, he said they have a family there that’s been looking for a teenager,”

“You’re putting me in foster care?” I screamed at him.

“I can’t keep putting your life at risk. The only reason you’re in danger is because you’re my son. It’s better if you have no connections with me.” He whispered.

“So what! You’re just going to shove me out of your life completely?” I exclaimed.

My dad sighed. He looked like he was about to cry, which I’ve never seen him do before. It’s incredible how he is still making himself the victim in this situation.

“I’m just looking out for your safety,”

“I promise I’ll listen! Ok! I won’t talk to anyone. I won’t interact. Just please don’t leave me.” I begged.

“Pack your stuff, Rue,”

With that, he turned and walked out of the house, leaving me to pack.

Chapter Text

"Peter!" I called from the kitchen, "You better hurry up, or Happy will have your head,"

"I know, I know," Peter said as he stumbled out of his room, looking like he had gone through a dryer, "I slept through my alarm. I promise it won't happen again!"

"That's what you have said every day for the past week,"

Peter slid onto the bar stool in the kitchen and grabbed a banana from the basket on the counter.

Ever since Alaska, Peters has been staying at the tower more and more. His aunt has been picking up night shifts and didn't like the thought of her nephew being at home alone at night. Since we spent an exciting three weeks up in the ice, only to find that nothing was going on up there, she trusted me to keep him alive.

"So, any exciting new plans in the world of Peter?" I asked.

"Mn, not really..mmmm... I have my second date with MJ Friday," He explained while chewing.

"Kid, I swear I'm not going to take you to school anymore if you never come to the car on time," Happy said, looking frustrated while exiting from the elevators across the room. "7:30, that's all I'm asking for."

Peter hopped off his seat and followed Happy into the elevator.

"Bye, Mr. Stark," he called as the elevator doors shut.

A wave of boredom hits me almost immediately. I don't have any meetings or business trips to go on, which is strange. Typically I'm booked for months in advance. I look at my phone to check the date—April 17th.

I'm supposed to be in Alaska.

The thought hits me like a train. That's why I had nothing scheduled. I had cleared everything for a week once a month for the rest of this year.

I haven't seen my kid in three months now. That thought alone made me want to cry. I missed the kid so badly, but I knew the choice I had made was the right one. Any sort of connection would just put his life at risk.

He had been sent to live with a lovely family, the Wilsons. Apparently, that did not work out because it said he had been moved when I hacked the CPS. I stopped checking after that because the point of sending him away was to cut all ties. Stalking every family he gets sent to does nothing when I can't control it. He is now somewhere in the system, and I can't do anything to keep him safe. Without his connection to me, no supernatural threats should endanger him, at least.

Since I had all this free time, the last thing I should be doing is worrying about my ex-son.

I settled down on the couch and turned on Brooklyn nine-nine. This is Peter's favorite show. I relaxed into the chair, enjoying the time off.

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RINGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

I blink my eyes open slowly.

RINGGGGGGGG

Who on earth would be calling at this ungodly hour. I pick up my phone and see that it is, in fact, only five o'clock in the evening. I must have fallen asleep while watching tv. This theory is confirmed when I see Brooklyn nine-nine playing on the tv in front of me. I slept from seven to five. That's more sleep than I've gotten this entire year.

I looked at the caller ID. Peter. That's strange; he should be back at home with his aunt. I answered the phone before it could ring again.

"Hey underoos, miss me already?"

I am met with the sounds of uncontrollable sobs.

"Hey, kid? Are You ok?" I said, my voice laced with concern.

"She's gone..go. Ne," he stammered.

"Who's gone?" I asked before it hit me.

May. Who else could it be

"where are you?" I asked

"Midtown central hospital," He murmured while continuing to sob.

"Ok, baby, ill be right there, ok? Are you good with me hanging up, or do you want me to stay on the phone with you?"

"I'll be fine," He said, clearly not fine.

"Ok, I'll be there in five minutes."

The second he hung up the phone, I called the suit. Cars aren't fast enough. As I'm flying over the city, cursing the fact I let the parkers live so far, I called Happy.

"Yes, boss?"

"Kids aunt died, I don't know all the details yet, but I need you to pick us up at Midtown Central Hospital."

"Ok, I'll be there in 20," Happy replied after a couple seconds.

I felt bad calling him like this, knowing that I had just broken the news that his girlfriend had passed. But right now, I needed to focus on Peter.

I landed on the roof of the hospital around three minutes later.

I found Peter sitting in the lobby, looking down at his hands blankly. I couldn't blame him. He had just lost his last living relative. I walked over and sat in the plastic seat next to him.

"I can't believe she's gone," he muttered, not looking up.

I put an arm around his shoulders, not knowing how else to comfort him.

"Mr. Stark," I look up to see a young lady nurse and an older grumpy-looking woman looking at me expectantly, "We need to speak with you about Mr. Parker's living arrangements."

I wanted to snap at them about how that could wait. I was trying to comfort my kid, but I knew that it needed to be talked about now in order to bring Peter home.

I gave Peter a squeeze and stood up to follow the women. They lead me to a conference room.

"I'm nurse Kelly. I was a friend and co-worker of May's. And this is Ketha Jones from CPS. She's here to discuss Mr. Parker's guardianship."

I nodded my head at each of them, having no doubt they knew who I was.

"Are you aware of what happened?" the nurse asked.

"No, Peter wasn't at a place to tell me," I replied.

"A semi-truck hit her head-on. The other driver had fallen asleep and had veered into the other lane.

The lady from social services spoke up.

"May Parker left you as the alternate choice as Peters Guardian if something were to ever happen to her. Were you aware of this fact?"

I nodded.

"Where you also aware that she made a note saying that you would need to adopt him to be his guardian," Jones asked.

I had forgotten about that. May had said that she didn't want Peter to get his hopes up just for me to abandon him. I love Peter too much to ever do something like that to him. But I understood where his aunt had been coming from. I had a long history of abandoning things. With Peter, though, I would be there for him. He was already practically my son in every way but legal and biological.

"Yes, I am, and I am still ready to do that."

"Mrs. Parker had already had everything in line for the adoption. All it needs is your signature and to be approved by a judge," She said while sliding over a stack of paper.

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About a half-hour later, after signing papers and listening to the lady from CPS go over everything I needed to know, I walked out and back into the lobby. Peter was still sitting there, hands in his lap, eyes unfocused.

He looked up when I approached. Jumping up, he wrapped his arms around me. I hugged him tightly as he began to sob into my shirt. Running my hands through his hair, I tried to comfort him.

"It's Ok, your going to come with me, Alright?" I whispered.

"It's my fault... She would have been out there if it wasn't for me," He wailed.

"Shhh, it's ok," It was definitely not ok.

The kid had just lost his last living blood relative. Who was I to say everything was ok.

Slowly, I guided the kid out into the parking lot where Happy was waiting. Once in the car, the kid tucked into my side. I looked up at Happy and saw tear streaks. Last week, he had shown me the ring he was going to propose to May with. I would need to make sure to talk to him later and make sure he's ok.

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"So you have a kid now?" I look up and see Pepper standing in the doorway of my lab.

After getting to the tower, Peter had gone straight to bed, too exhausted to resist. I had gone down to my lab to burn off some steam.

"I guess you could say that," I replied.

"Well, you've looked at him as a son for ages now." She said softly while walking closer to me.

I swiveled in my chair and took her hands in mine once she was in front of me. She squeezed them.

"Maybe we should push back our wedding to give Peter some time to acclimate." She said.

In all the chaos of the night, I had forgotten that I was supposed to get married next weekend. Only ten more days until I was supposed to marry the love of my life.

"Peter would be so upset if we canceled just for him," I explained, "you know how he blames himself,"

"Your right. I just don't want to put too much on Peter's plate."

"Let's see how tomorrow goes, then we will decide on what to do," I offered, "deal?"

"Deal," She smiled down at me before dragging me up from my seat towards the elevator.

"Now that you have a kid, though, you need to be responsible and sleep. You can't just shut down like you normally do because Peter needs you."

I knew she was right. Peter was struggling right now and needed me to be present. I will take care of this kid if it's the last thing I do.

Chapter Text

"No, please!" she screamed, struggling against her bonds.

I try to get out of the chair I'm tied to. I cry out through the gag that's stuffed in my month after jostling my arm. It was definitely broken, judging from the harsh angle. Ruby was sitting directly across from me. She had a long cut across her scalp that was staining her long blonde curls a deep red. She mainly seemed unharmed, but that wasn't much comfort considering there was a man in between us with a gun to her head. A camera on a tripod is pointed toward them.

"See Stark; this is what happens when you try to play a hero. You took my kid now I'll take yous." the man's voice boomed as he turned off the safety of the gun.

Ruby whimpered. Tears were streaming rapidly out of her deep brown eyes. I screamed through the gag as the man pulled the trigger.

I snap awake from my nightmare from someone shaking me.

I can feel myself shaking like a leaf. I start sobbing. Arms wrap around me, and I feel myself being pulled into a hug.

I could feel his breath on my neck, which tells me that Mr. Baxter is probably saying things of some comfort.

I took a deep breath, trying to get control of the sobs, but I seemed just to cry harder. I barely registered Mr. Baxter shifting to recline on the bedpost. I just continued crying into his chest.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunlight in my eyes caused me to wake far earlier than I would have liked for a Saturday. I glanced at the clock seeing that it was seven. Yuck. It's always the days I can sleep in that my body chooses to wake up early. When I need to get up for school, though, I don't function till around noon.

The memories from last night flood my head.

I groaned and flopped back down on my pillow. My plan of causing as little disturbance as I can was failing epically. The Baxters are a fantastic family, and I really don't want to be sent away again. As many times as they have told me that they want to help, I know people limit how many problems they can handle. Certainly when the kid is not even their own. I mean, They are my legal guardians, but that's not the point.

Living here has been amazing, though. I'd been here for five months already, which surprised me that they hadn't sent me back yet. They already had three daughters, so it's almost like having a sibling for the first time. Both Mr. and Mrs. Baxter are insanely nice and always make me feel like I'm part of the family even though I'm only here temporarily. I just hope that they can handle me for a while. I really don't want to say goodbye.

My stomach growling convinces me to get up. I quickly threw on some jeans, a t-shirt and put in my hearing aids before heading out of my room.

The house was pretty basic, two stories with a basement. All the bedrooms were upstairs. At the end of the hall, my room was right next to Eve's, the youngest of their daughters. She and I get along pretty well. She is about nine months older than me but is in the same grade at school. On the other side of her door, at the top of the stairs, is Mr. and Mrs. Baxter's room. On the opposite side of the hall is their other daughter Lily who is nineteen. Next to Lily's room is a room for their granddaughter, the child of their oldest, Kathrine, for when she comes and stays here.

I walked down the stairs that led to the living room. It was pretty standard—two off-white couches, a recliner, and a tv. I pass through the living room to get the kitchen that was connected to it.

Mrs. Baxter was making waffles at the counter when I walked in, and Eve was sitting at the bar stool doing homework.

"Goodmorning!" Mrs. Baxter said cheerily, then kissed my temple.

"Mornin'," I replied as I slid onto the stool next to Eve.

Mrs. Baxter is always in a good mood. Which doesn't make sense considering how early she gets up. Mrs. Baxter is one of those morning people that seems not to need sleep to survive. Every day by six, she's up and ready to face the day. This skill comes in handy considering she's a teacher. Mrs. Baxter also always wears blue because she says it needs to be thought of positively instead of being the sad color.

Today she's wearing a sky blue shirt that matches her eyes. Mrs. Baxters just pulled up her long blonde hair into a simple ponytail so it won't fall into the waffles.

Eve is the complete opposite of her mother. She doesn't believe in wearing any color other than black. She is very pale, though, so it just makes her look like a vampire. Certainly since her hair was currently black. She changes so often that I have no idea what her natural hair color is. It's cropped short, and it's got this cool crazy messy vibe to it that she got by cutting it herself with no plan. I had actually been there for that. Her hair kept falling into her face one day, and she didn't have a hair tie; she just cut it all off. She later went back and fixed it, making it a pixie cut-like thing. It was a good bit shorter than mine, considering I hadn't had a haircut in six months.

I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through Instagram. It was exciting to learn that I could finally get social media. My dad had put some kind of block on my old phone to stop those apps from even being visible in the app store. I couldn't find Charity on there. I had never bothered getting her account details because I didn't think I would ever need it.

I missed her so much. Losing my dad hadn't been too hard cause I never really saw him. All losing him did was show me the reality that no one will ever honestly care for me. I mean, if my own father couldn't be with me for more than a week each month, then who would.

But losing Charity had been hard. I never even got to say goodbye. She was my one and only friend. I always knew she cared because she never would do anything she didn't want to. A small comfort, but I take what I can get.

"So," Mrs. Baxter started, drawing me out of my thoughts, "what are you guy's plans for today?"

"I don't have anything," I said.

"I've got nothing after I finish this," Eve explained, motioning to her homework.

"Maybe we could all go do something, get in some family bonding!" Mrs. Baxter said.

She was one of those people who thinks the greatest thing in the world is being around her family. She is very excitable. At first, she had tried to tone it down around me, but after about a week, she had shown her true self. I'm always included in what she calls "family bonding," even though I'm not technically part of the family.

"Ughh," Eve grumbles, "I don't want to hang with my lame family,"

"Too bad," Mrs. Baxter said as she slid me a finished waffle.

"How come he got the first waffle? I've been sitting here longer," Eve whined.

"Rue didn't call his family lame,"

"It's pretty easy when you don't have one," I joked.

Eve snorted and continued on her homework. Mrs. Baxter sent me a look that wiped the smile off my face.

"Yes, you do, so stop saying such rubbish," She said sternly while still sounding like she cared.

I don't think she understood that I was literally thrown out. For some reason, she does not appreciate it when I say things like that. Eve usually laughs but has said the same thing as her mother a couple of times.

"A new neighbor is moving in down the street," she explained, "So at some point today, I want us to go down and welcome them,"

"Oh, we should make brownies!" Eve exclaimed.

"I like brownies," I added helpfully.

"Ok then, I'll run to the store and grab some stuff," Mrs. Baxter said.

She slid Eve a waffle.

"Hello, people of the house!" Lily exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen.

Lily was a lot like her mother. Same blonde hair, blue eyes, positive energy. They are both really tall. Well, tall a relative term. To my five foot four self, they were tall. Lily and her mother were about five-nine, and Eve was only five-six. Mr. Baxter was over six feet, though. I had grown to whole inches since living here, so maybe it's in the house.

"Morning, honey!" Mrs. Baxter said before embracing her daughter.

Lily walked over and stole part of my waffle. I resisted the urge to slap her hand away. Thankfully Eve did not have such resistance and whacked her hand for me.

"What are your plans today?" Mrs. Baxter asked Lily.

"Mary and I are going to the theaters," she said, now trying to steal from Eve's plate.

Mary was Lily's girlfriend that she was constantly with. Like every single day, they hung out. I'll never understand how people can care about each other so much they want to see them every waking hour. They had been dating almost three years now and apparently can still handle the sight of each other.

"Oh, that sounds fun!" Her mother replied.

They both continue the conversation, but I zone out in favor of looking over Eves's shoulder at her homework.

"I don't need your help," she snapped.

"Good, cause I'm not giving you any," I replied before taking the last bite of my waffle. "Hey Mrs. Baxter, I can just run to the store for you since I have nothing else to do,"

"Oh, that'd be great, honey! Ill text you all the stuff we need." She added, "And don't call me Mrs. Baxter. I'm not a stranger."

I shot her a smile, but honestly, I didn't know what else she wanted me to call her. I choose just to leave it for now.

"Wait for me, Rue," Eve said as she shoved the rest of her waffle down her throat.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eve and I walked down the aisle of the store. Looking back, I shouldn't have offered to go to the store. I have no idea what I'm doing, and Eve wasn't much help either.

"So, where would baking stuff be?" I asked her.

"Maybe with the flour."

"Ok," I replied, "But where's the flour?"

"We are not very good at this," She noted.

I nodded.

"We should open up a mail-like service that just brings hopeless people like us groceries through drone," I said.

"I think they already have something like that,"

"They use drones to drop off food?"

"Sadly no, but you can pay people to get groceries for you,"

"A drone would be cooler."

"Agreed"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eventually, we found everything and made our way home. It turns out we are about as good at baking as we are at shopping. The most me and Eve accomplished was just making a mess. Thankfully her mom had a bit of control and got the brownies done despite our antics.

"I don't know why we can't just eat them all ourselves," Eve complained, "you know dad could eat this entire batch by himself."

"I do, and that's exactly why we shouldn't keep them." Mrs. Baxter explained.

We were walking down to the new neighbor's house to share our brownies. I have to say I agree with Eve on this one. But I wasn't about to share that thought.

Thankfully the house was only two down from ours, so it wasn't a horrible walk. It was much shorter than my hike to the bus station back in Alaska. But it was much hotter. I don't understand how Eve is wearing long sleeves and jeans. It's like sixty degrees outside. I mean, I'm wearing long sleeves and jeans, but that's for an entirely different reason.

"Eve, will you knock on the door," Mrs. Baxter asked her.

She walked up and knocked. After a couple of seconds, the door opened up to reveal an approximately thirty-year-old man. He looked pretty average. Brown hair, brown eyes, tall. Nothing interesting. Nothing worth losing brownies too.

"Hi! Welcome to the neighborhood!" Mrs. Baxter said, "I'm Heather; these are my children Eve and Rue. We brought you some brownies as a little housewarming gift."

I glanced sideways at Eve, who was standing next to me. She didn't seem to think the way her mother had introduced us was anything out of the ordinary. I guess it would have been too hard to explain the foster care part. It was probably just to simplify it.

The man smiled.

"Nice to meet you guys!" He said warmly, "I'm Micheal, Micheal Damnia,"

Chapter Text

Peters pov

"Hey, Mr. Stark," I called, "I needed help,"

Tony walked into my room in his nice suit.

"Kid, you're my son now so, please don't call me Mr. Stark," He said.

"Sorry, force of habit," I explained, then gestured to the tie I was struggling with.

Tony undid his tie and started showing me step by step how to do it. Memories flooded back to me from almost a full year and a half ago when May taught me the same thing.

Noticing my tear-filled eyes, Tony stopped explaining and pulled me into a hug.

"I miss her so much," I sobbed into his shoulder.

"I know, bambino, I know," He said while rubbing comforting circles on my back. "How about we postpone and do this another day?"

I shook my head furiously.

"No! Don't put off your wedding just for me being a baby."

"You're not a baby; you're just grieving," Tony explained, "And I don't want this day to be tainted for you."

I pulled back in from the embrace.

"Are you getting cold feet?" I asked

"Never in a million years, kid," He said sincerely. "How about I just do your tie for today, and we tackle this another day?"

I allowed him to do my tie. After he was done, he messed up the hair I had worked so hard to do. I slapped his hands away and went into my bathroom to fix it.

My room here at the compound was pretty basic. The room was about three times as big as my old one, but it was decorated the same. Tony and Pepper's room was right next to mine, which was nice if I needed them. I missed my old apartment and all the memories it held, but I was thankful that I got to live with Mr. Stark and not a random family. Plus, he had continued paying rent for May's old apartment, so I could take my time going through all of our things.

After successfully fixing my hair in the bathroom, I went back into my room, where Mr. Stark was sitting on my bed scrolling through his phone. He glanced up when I walked in and put his phone into his pocket.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

I nodded.

I have never been to a wedding before, so I don't know what to expect. I can imagine that a Stark wedding is a bit more elaborate than a traditional wedding would be. I'm pretty sure that the suit I'm wearing costs more than the rent of my old apartment.

Mr. Stark got off the bed and wrapped his arms around me. I melted into his embrace. I knew that today was all about him and Mrs. Potts, but I was very thankful for the comfort. This was the first gathering I would go to without May. I remember us talking the day before she died about what the limit of absurdity would be for our wedding attire before Mr. Stark kicked us out. She had joked that I could have come dressed as a sandwich, and he still would have let me in, saying how "it added pazazz."

Here I am, though, about two hours before the wedding about to start, wearing a plain black suit with no May by my side. I had to hold down my tears. My face was still pressed to Mr. Starks suit, and I refused to ruin it right before his wedding.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we need to get going." Happy said from the doorway.

I hadn't heard him approach, which was impressive given my "Peter tingle," as May would have called it. Finally, Mr. Stark and I broke apart with him giving me a final pat on the back.

We headed down to the garage and got into a solid black Audi. The ride was longer than I had expected. The wedding was being held at a lake house Mr. Stark had recently purchased. He has said that he wanted his family to have a typical place outside of our 'workhouse,' as he calls it. It was about a two-hour drive, but the expectations for today made it feel like a million years.

We pulled into the driveway and exited the car. The yard was decorated beautifully. There were white and blue colored balloons and streamers hanging all around, and the chairs were in neat rows. Mr. Stark had wanted blue as one of the colors since when he had realized that he was in love with Mrs. Potts, she had been wearing a blue dress.

I went, sat down, and waited for the wedding to start. I had been offered a role in the wedding party, but I declined because the idea of all these people's eyes on me was repelling.

"Hey kid," I heard a while later when guests were starting to arrive.

I looked up to see Captain America. After the mission in Alaska, the rogue avengers had been officially pardoned. The team had been working together recently to repair the damage that had happened in between them.

The Captain sat down next to me. We made some small talk but not much. I still haven't completely forgiven him for what had happened between him and Mr. Stark. So the other Avengers joined us. It was a very private wedding. The couple had not wanted to get the press involved on their special day.

The ceremony was short. Pepper looked terrific, and Mr. Stark looked like he was going to burst into tears of happiness at any moment.

The reception was the best party I have been to in a long time. I was sitting at a table with the avengers plus Happy, which was very entertaining. Mr. and the now Mrs. Stark was dancing the entire time. I got up a few times, but dancing isn't really my style.

At the end of the night, we sent them off to their car with a sparkler path. They weren't going anywhere. They had decided to postpone their honeymoon for a little while so we could get settled as a family.

I went back inside after the guests had all left. I sat at the kitchen table and started eating leftover cake.

"We're back!" I hear as the back door opens.

I look up from where I'm hunched over my cake like a gremlin. The two newlyweds entered with a parade of excitement. I stood up and hugged both of them. Both of my parents, I realized.

"That was so beautiful!" I exclaimed.

"Well, of course," Mr. Stark said, "It's a Stark wedding! So it has to be the best!"

We all laughed. We had seen Mr. Stark stressing over every last detail of this wedding for months now.

"Alright, kiddo," Mr. Stark stated, "It's been a long day. So it's probably best if you head on up to bed and get a good night's rest."

I chose to ignore the fact that he was getting rid of me to be alone with his new wife, said goodnight, and headed up to my room.

I fell asleep that night feeling happy for the first time in a long time.

Chapter Text

Tony’s POV

Air seemed to disappear from my lungs. Gasping for a breath, I sat bolt upright. The pressure of my hand on my chest grounded me as I reached for air. The sheets underneath me shifted as Pepper, now awake thanks to my panic, sat up. She placed her hand on my back and quietly counseled me out of panic.

My heart rate returned to normal, or at least as normal as my heart can get, and I took a deep breath.

“Want to talk about that?” Pepper asked.

I shook my head.

How could I tell her I was losing sleep over a son she didn't even know I had? To add to that, this was the first night of our marriage. I couldn't drop a bombshell like that on her now. But I had this weight on my chest that hadn't left since the day Peter came back from his undercover mission.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had done the wrong thing. At the time, it seemed to be the only option. I was putting Rue's life in danger every day just by existing. I had tried hard to warn him of the dangers and how he needed to steer away from people for his safety. I guess he had a little too much Stark in him. The stubborn characteristic of finding yourself invincible had been passed down through the generations.

He was safe now. Rue had a family who could be there every day when he woke up and went to school. He had a family that could go to all his events. He could make friends without worrying about his safety.

In all logical parts of my mind, this was what should have happened sixteen years ago. I never should have tried to raise kids by myself. I most definitely should have done this after Ruby.

I had watched my own daughter die and had scarcely saved my son from the same fate, yet I continued to believe that I could keep him away from harm.

I stressed over having Peter now being my son. I had honestly agreed to be Peter's next-in-line guardian because I couldn't believe that anything would happen to May. At least Peter was Spiderman. He was enhanced and knew how to protect himself. Peter also already had enemies and had partially consented to that life. He had known what risks were being taken when he first became Spiderman.

Rue had never signed up for any of it. That's how I tried to justify what I had done at least. Every bone in my body tells me to keep him close but the last time I tried that, the worst possible outcome occurred.

Pulling myself from my thoughts, I remembered Pepper beside me. She was looking at me with concern painted over her features.

“I’m fine” I lied to her, “I was just the typical nightmare”

I could tell from the look in Peppers's eye that she hadn’t bought that for a second.

Thankfully, she took the hint and laid back down after patting my arm.

Every part of me wanted to go get Rue. I have deeply rooted hover-parent tendencies.

I don’t know what had come over me but I needed him to be safe and him being in any way connected with me was putting him at risk.

But wasn’t that exactly what I was doing with Peter?

Letting him be close to me even though it was risky?

Why did my brain put them into different categories, not allowing me to treat them both as my sons?

I knew the answer, and it wasn't that deep. Peter had outside connections with people that would risk their lives just to see him be safe. And above that, he was Spiderman and was strong enough to defend himself in case anything happened.

Rue had no one but me, and he doesn’t have any mutations to help protect him.

And whose fault is that first one?

Going in mind circles, blaming myself for my own stupid actions, no matter how I tried to defend them, was getting me nowhere.

I slid out of bed, careful not to wake up Pepper, and headed to the kitchen.

I opened the fridge, trying to find a decent late-night snack. Pepper was a health fanatic and had removed all the primes midnight foods.

The most junk food-like thing in there was leftover bacon. I glared at it as if my look could turn it into a juicy cheeseburger.

I glanced at the clock. 3:14 AM. Hm.

I grabbed my keys, deciding that if I was going to wait at least four more hours for Pepper to get up, I am going to have decent food in the meantime.

"Mr. Stark?" I hear a tired voice from behind me.

"Hi-Ya Pete!" I said joyfully as if I had just awoken for a pleasant reason instead of the truth.

"Where are you going? It's three in the morning," he said whilst rubbing his eyes.

"Headed to go get a cheeseburger, wanna join?"

"I'm not dressed.." Peter said, gesturing to his Star Wars pj's.

"Eh, that's what adds to the midnight adventure!"

I walked over to Peter, threw an arm around his shoulder, and guided him towards the elevator.

I could see his goofy smile, simply excited to go get food with me. Something tugged at my heart, telling me that it's not him who I'm supposed to be doing this with.

I ignored it, and instead focused on having a great early morning with my son.