Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was shortly before the summer holidays, when Peter's school was invited on a school trip to Oscorp Industries. It was a huge possibility for the students to visit a research facility, where many technicians worked in genius laboratories and most of them were glad to have that chance. A week before their appointed date, their teacher gave a speech about how lucky they were to visit Oscorp and how the students should behave accordingly.

She then had passed around some piece of paper, which was a permission slip, for parents to sign, to agree that their kids could go on that class trip. Peter had to provide the school with both his aunt's and uncle’s signatures, since they were his legal guardians after his mom and dad had passed.

It had already been ten years since they had died during a five-day-long vacation, when their plane crashed, and Peter didn’t have many memories of them. But it still stung badly, whenever he was reminded that he didn’t have his parents at his side for all of his accomplishments. Uncle Ben and Aunt May were great! They just weren’t his actual parents… Sometimes Peter got mad at himself for not being able to remember his parents. He knew of course how they looked like, but even though he would never tell May, he suspected that was because she and Ben had shown Peter many many pictures of his mother Mary and his father Richard.

Peter simply remembered the version of people he saw on those pictures, instead of having actual memories of his birth parents. When the thought of not remembering his parents on his own, popped into his mind, he often got very sad and blamed himself immensely. How could he just not remember them? He knew that even small children should be able to have memories of their early life, so he couldn’t grasp why he didn’t remember Mary and Richard Parker.

…

The field trip was very welcome to May and Ben. They had promptly signed the sheet when Peter handed it to them and sent him on his way, thinking it would be a great experience for Peter and his friends.

When Peter's class went, they got to see so much of Oscorp Industries that they had a really good time there, until they went into the labs and ran into a little bit of a problem there. Peter got bitten by a loose spider. Oscorp’s lab technicians weren’t aware of what had happened that day, and because Peter didn’t say a word to them or his teacher, they never found out. The spider that bit Peter was swatted away by his hand and then forgotten for the rest of the tour.

Up until two days later, when his symptoms started and forced him to stay at home until he got better. He was so sick, he felt as if it would be his end. May and Ben were incredibly worried about him, because he had run such a high fever. It took him about a week to be fine again, and then it took him another few days to recognise the powers he had gained after being bitten by that spider.

It began when Peter had to go to school a little later than usual that day, so he got to sleep in for once. When he finally got up, the apartment the Parkers lived in was empty, and he had all the space to himself. It had happened in the kitchen. He noticed his new powers. He was totally surprised when he realised how his hearing and seeing were suddenly much improved, and he couldn’t wear his glasses because they made his vision blurry instead of clear. It had felt so weird to leave the glasses behind, when he stepped out on the streets.

And that became a little bit of a problem actually because, of course, Aunt May and Uncle Ben noticed that he wasn’t wearing his glasses anymore, which resulted in them taking Peter to the optician. Peter feared they would somehow find out that something within him had changed, but he was surprised when the optician suggested that sometimes kids grew up to have better eyesight, because of the use of glasses and later on not having to wear them.

After he had overcome this difficulty, he decided to become more careful when discovering new powers. It was getting hard to disguise his powers at school, too. He can’t participate in any sports anymore, because it would be so obvious that something about him is different to the Peter before. When he throws a basketball now, it flies so much further than anyone else can throw. It’s unexplainable. So, he no longer does it.

…

After a while he figured out his other brand-new powers. One random afternoon he realised he could stick to the walls. He was in the shower, after a particularly hard day, arms stretched out on the wall, when he realised, he couldn’t move them anymore.

First, he had freaked out and tried to rip them away, but when he realised that this won’t work, he gave up and tried a calmer approach. He looked at the way his hands stuck to the wall and saw that it only affected his hands. He could still lift his arms, which was a huge relief for Peter. As he tried to free himself, he used some clever approaches to the situation presented to him. First, he somehow got some soap between his hands and the wall, but to no avail, then he let the water flow over hands and shower wall, but his hands still didn’t budge.

He got pretty frustrated by then. Nothing he tried seemed to work, the more he tried to free himself, the more stuck he got. At some point he felt, as if the sticking got worse the more, he grew agitated.

It took about half an hour, until his hands finally slipped off the wall and he was able to get out. He was freezing badly, because he couldn’t let the water run for half an hour with no break. He had wrapped himself quickly into a fluffy towel and sat down on the bathroom floor. He had to think for a while, and after some minutes he came to the conclusion that he should find out if he had developed any other strange powers.

He called the school, pretending to be sick, and stayed at home for the day. He knew May and Ben would come back late this evening and that this would be his chance to find out any powers and try them out.

So, he did exactly that. It took him about two hours to find out he could actually climb up every surface he wanted and that it was a great experience to see Queens from the point of a skyscraper. When he got home, he threw the dark hoodie and the bandana, he had wrapped around his face to stay anonymous, into the washing machine (they were pretty sweaty, considering that Peter had just climbed multiple buildings on his own) and went to bed.

Later that evening, when Ben and May were back home, he told them he was sick, but that he was sure he would feel better tomorrow and that he wanted to go to school. His Aunt and Uncle were satisfied with that statement, and they all had some hot dinner, after which Peter went straight to bed.

After that the fun time begun. But only until his uncle died unexpectedly in a mugging incident.

Chapter Text

4 months after Ben’s death.

Peter still has nightmares.

They wake him during the night.

He has not slept through a whole night without waking up, panting and crying.

Although his crying had reduced to a silent whimpering.

His nightmares usually contained Ben and his death, followed by immense guilt from Peter, because he had failed to protect him.

…

Peter had been there. The day Ben died. He had watched the robbers corner Ben. One had pulled out a knife from a backpack and then threatened Peters uncle. Ben, who was to perplex to react properly had taken a few seconds too long to follow the mens instructions, so the one with the knife had stabbed him.

All of this happened in such a short time window, that Peter never had the chance to actually intervene and change the outcome. So, he had watched Ben fall to the ground. When he finally overcame his panic, he swung down and tried to help his father figure out, but he was too late. Ben had looked up into his tear-filled eyes, while he slowly bled out and whispered something.

It was so hard to understand him, Peter tried to lean down to be able to hear him better, but he was too late. Ben died on the 1st of September, in a side alley, all alone with only Peter as the Spider-man as a witness.

…

Tonight, when Peter wakes up shaking and panting, he doesn’t remember what exactly his dream had been about. He just knows that he was back in that alley, surrounded by almost complete darkness and dreadful feelings.

His heartbeat going faster than normally, he smells the dirty stones, that littered the floor of that alley. Peter knew, subconsciously that he was back in the situation, where he failed his uncle terribly.

It had been truly traumatic, crouching on the building that was on the left side of the alleyway, looking out into the city calmly, until realising what was happening practically in front of his eyes.

He had seen that there was something going on and decided to wait a little while, to watch what would happen. As he sat, he saw three people speaking with each other. One of them was decidedly older than the other two. Suddenly Peter realised that this was a robbing, and that he had to intervene.

He looked around, to plan his route down so that he would be able to surprise the robbers. He listened to them speak to the older man. “Come on, give us your belongings. I just saw your twinkling watch, and I want it. Hurry up! We don’t have all day.”

The one who hadn’t said anything until now, was carrying a pocketknife and he had got it out in the open so swiftly, Peter had no chance to react fast enough. It was then that Peter realised that the elderly man was his uncle Ben.

He had to watch the robber drive the knife into uncle Ben’s abdomen. He saw Ben fall down and the two gangsters began to run away.

Peter had swung down to the alleyway so fast, he touched the ground with his feet and stumbled towards his dying uncle. Ben’s face was pale and his breathing laboured. He was laying on his back and Peter saw the way his blood very slowly seeped out under his body, surrounding him.

Peter rushed forwards, pressed his hands against the wounds and began begging his uncle to stay with him. “Please Ben, you can’t leave us. We need you. May needs you. Please keep your eyes open. Just talk to me. I’ll get you help.”

Uncle Ben had his eyes ripped open comically large. He had taken very shallow breaths and when he opened his mouth to say something to Peter, a trickle of blood run down the corner of his mouth.

Peter felt everything at once. He was terrified, didn’t know what to do. He felt his body freeze up, with the inability to do anything. When he saw Ben’s lips moving, he quickly leaned down to be within earshot. “Peter, is that you?”, Ben asked with a rusty voice. He tried to lift his arm, but couldn’t, because his strength had left him.

“Uncle Ben, I am so sorry”, Peter cried hot tears. He ripped the mask from his face and looked into his uncle’s eyes. “I saw it all happen, I am too late, I couldn’t prevent this.”

Ben shook his head and finally got his left hand to Peters face. “Peter, you did nothing wrong. I’m so glad you stayed out of this. I think I won’t make it. Please, Peter. You must promise me to take good care of your aunt May. Please.” He brushed the back of his fingers across Peters cheek, down to his chin.

Peter had been sobbing at that point. He promised Ben to be good to May. “But I know you will pull through, i’m going to get help now, Ben. Just stay here, i’ll call for help, i’ll be right back!” he pushed down his mask and dashed out of the alleyway to call the police and an ambulance.

But Ben couldn’t be saved. When Peter managed to get the attention of an ambulance and brought them to the alley, Ben was already gone. He was laying in a puddle of his own blood, eyes closed, face calm but grey-ish. The paramedics had declared him dead and took him with them. One of the medics clapped Peter on the shoulder, had thanked “Spider-Man” for his help and told him they were taking Ben to the morgue, where he would be prepared and his relatives could see him a last time.

…

Whenever Peter remembers this time, he has to fight back his tears hard.

He knows exactly what happened next. He had swung home, slipped into his room through the open window and laid down. He knew May was home, because he could hear her sing in the kitchen, where she prepared the dinner for the three of them.

He still remembers the hard knocks on their door. He knew instantly that this must be the police, to inform them of Bens passing. He was shaking, afraid to be the one answering the door, so he sat and waited.

He heard May go to the door, open it and speaking to the police officers. He heard her let out a heavy sigh. He heard her begin to cry. And then it settled deep inside his bones: Ben truly was dead, and he and May would never see him alive again, never speak to him, never be with him anymore.

They had to move, once the dust settled. When the funeral was done, Ben’s last will been read and all of the bureaucracy was done, May had sat Peter down for an important talk. She explained to him, that they no longer could afford the big, homey flat they lived in for forever, and that she would like to move, if he was fine with it.

Because Peter already felt like he had to make up for Ben’s death, he agreed willingly, and his aunt had started flat hunting pretty soon after.

They stayed in Queens, although they found a smaller flat, with a lot of windows, which Peter found very pretty. A lot of their old furniture stayed in their old flat and would go to the next tenants. They bought new things for their new flat, and for the first time Peter was able to decorate his room new, entirely to his liking. His old room had been decorated by himself and his uncle, when Peter moved in at five after his parents had died.

…

Now, Peter was awake in his room. They’ve been living in this flat for only seven weeks, and the young teenager decorated his room with a lot of movie posters. His bed stood under the big window front, so that he could look out at any moment, he just had to turn onto his tummy. He did that often. It was incredibly useful, for when he wanted to slip out into the city to patrol around Queens and help the city. Aunt May worked endlessly. Peter suspected that it was a way for her to deal with Uncle Ben’s death, but also because the flat had to be paid by the end of every month.

Peter had a fairly big desk. May found it at a flea market for furniture and bought it right away, along with a used desk lamp, that glowed with a yellowish light. Beside his bed was a small plant, which Peter had bought after he randomly decided to take care of some green plants. He had a small wardrobe, where his new clothes fit perfectly and on the top shelf, he had a small insignificant box, where he stowed his Spider-Man costume, incase Aunt May ever wanted to clean his room. He simply didn’t want her to find it.

Opposite of his new bed was the door that led into the corridor. May had insisted on the name tag that was attached to it. In big bold letters it said, Peter. Right in front of his room, just across the corridor, was the bathroom and to the right was the door that led them into the flat. It was a pretty sturdy wooden door, which had some big handles and great locks.

When turning to the left, one could walk into the kitchen, where Peter and May often had breakfast together. It was, like Peters room, very open, because here the window front continued. Peter often watched May look out into the city, while she cooked them something.

The living room was directly connected to the kitchen, just to the right side of it and there they had the big TV, where they watched some shows or movies. May had decorated the space with some plants and she built a cozy corner, with coaches and armchairs, that were plushy and comfortable. She made sure to take Peter with her to the shop, to involve him in the process of building their new home.

Together they looked for things that made them feel good. Things that made them feel at home, inside their new apartment.

It got better, over time. Being in a whole new place was something Peter didn’t enjoy at all. He had his problems with that since he was a small child. Even before he came to live with May and Ben, he was having nightmares about leaving a place that meant something to him or being forced to leave his mother and father. Mary and Richard had tried their best to calm him, whenever those kinds of dreams resurfaced.

…

Today he dreamt of Ben again. And the feeling he was left with, after waking up was a nasty one. He didn’t like it, and he certainly wanted to chase it. So, he looked at his watch and the gears in his head started to turn.

He could do a quick patrol around Queens…

Chapter Text

Peter opens his window and gazes into the night sky. It’s late. The clock has long strung midnight and technically he could go for a swing. He hadn’t touched his suit since Ben died and tonight could be a patrol-night, Peter thought to himself.

Quickly he decides to grab his self-made suit and patrol along the street, just up until the closed sandwich shop a few blocks away. He knows that some low-life bandits had shown up around that corner a few days ago, but at that time he had been too busy to engage.

He regrets that now. If he could’ve just gone out and help.

Now he slots that hoodie over himself, jumps into the joggers and pulls the face mask in place, before pulling the sleeves of his hoodie over his wrists, securing them with his thumbs through the holes and pulling the self-made slits on the inside of the sleeves to where his self-producing web-openings were.

It had been a little bit disturbing, discovering that he was able to shoot silvery, slimy webs out of an opening on his wrists, that allowed him to stick to buildings and swing around the city. He could also shoot his webbing at things and people, and they would stick.

Once he’s dressed, Peter opens his window all the way up and slides out of his room, into the fresh outside air. He sticks to the building and stays there for a moment, trying to decide where to begin his patrol.

He doesn’t want to stay outside for too long, so he has to decide for a route. Once he’s made up his mind, Peter shoots a web towards the building closest to his window. He then swings over and lands safely on top of the roof.

Already he’s smiling. He’s missed this.

Once he’s swinging for a while, he notices that he get’s his groove back. The longer he patrols for tonight, the better his webs are shooting and the riskier his stunts get.

The young Spider-Man swings around his neighbourhood, observing the dark streets and alleyways. The lanterns on each side of the street, below his apartment, are dimly lit, which provides the surroundings with some light.

Every other lantern is broken though, so the light is very sparse. Here comes Peters enhanced eyesight in handy.

He discovered that during one of his late-night patrols, when it was really dark outside, but he was still able to see everything going on in the darkest alley.

Tonight, there is almost nothing going on in his immediate neighbourhood, and Peters mind starts to wander. “Maybe I should finally take a bigger round of patrolling. May sleeps anyway.” And with that being said, he already made his decision.

For some time now, Peter thinks about documenting his Spider-Man activities on camera and selling some pics to the local paper. It would make him some greatly needed money, which he wants to use on upgrading the suit.

Once he notices that his thoughts are drifting away from his current task, he turns his concentration back to the street and looks out for someone who might need help.

Because he can’t make out someone, who needs his help, he swings a few blocks further, until he gets to the sandwich shop. There he swings down onto the street and looks around. Queens is so much quieter at night than daytime.

Peter now jumps over a fallen sign and strolls down the street.

Then he hears a noise, that he’s able to make out to be a cat after a few minutes. Because the sounds are so loud, Peter decides to check it out. He finds a tuxedo cat in a tree, looking for a way down.

“Hi, how are you doing?”, Peter asks, and steps under the tree to look up at the cat. “Did you climb up there, and then noticed you couldn’t get back down?”

The cat meows really loudly at that, and Peter decides to help the poor guy out.

“I’m going to climb up to you, don’t worry. You just have to work a little with me, okay?”

Peter grips the stem of the tree with both his hands and begins climbing. When he reaches the cat, he stretches his left hand towards the tuxedo and says: “pspsps, come here little guy.”

It works! Peter is almost surprised, when the distressed cat moves towards him and finally climbs into his waiting hand. Once Peter’s sure that he has the cat secure in his grip, he slowly moves back down to the ground.

When Peter steps to the ground, the cat launches out of his grip and turns towards him. It hisses and flees down the street around the corner, tail standing bushy.

Young Spider-Man laughs quietly and then turns around to find more places to help.

He is out for another thirty minutes. He captures one bicycle thief and scares away two guys, who were following a young woman down the road. They were just a few years older than Peter, and after he’d stopped them, he swears to himself to never become a person like that.

After he checked up on the woman, who hadn’t even noticed that someone was following her, he swings back home, to get some sleep.

…

He awakes startled. What time is it? He glances at the clock, hanging over his door, and makes out the numbers. He should already be in school. Damn it! How did he oversleep this bad? He doesn’t even have the time to think about it, so he jumps out of bed, stumbles across his floor and thumbs against his door. It’s slightly ajar and Peter wonders why he didn’t wake up to noise, when May must’ve got ready just an hour ago.

There’s just no way she got ready without waking him in the process.

He rushes into the bathroom, steps under the shower and lets the hot water run over his hair. While he shampoos his brown hair his thoughts run. When he isn’t careful, some shampoo gets into his eyes. Peter swears and rubs his face furiously with his fists.

When he’s done, his eyes burn and he’s sure if he’d look into the mirror, he’d be faced with two very red eyes.

He groans annoyed and get’s ready to get out of the shower. He quickly grabs his towel and pats himself dry. Then he get’s back into his room. He grabs some underwear and a jeans and pulls them on, while simultaneously jumping around the apartment, getting his breakfast ready.

Peter pulls his phone from the charger and checks his texts. He has multiple messages from Ned.

“PETER?? When are you coming?”

“Ms. Fitz has already started the period. Hurry up!”

“Peter?”

“Are you even coming?”

“I strongly assume that you overslept”

“Oh shit”, Peter mutters under his breath and grabs the toast he just took out of the toaster. One quick look at his watch tells him that he has to be very fast to get to the next bus to be at school for at least the second period.

He’s quick. Quicker than he had anticipated and get’s ready in record time. He grabs the handle and darts to the door. He will get a sandwich at his high schools' cafeteria. Behind him, the door closes and Peter is on his way.

Three minutes and a sprint down to the bus stop later, he sits in an overcrowded bus, which distinctively smells like dry sweat and desperate students, trying to get their math homework’s done just thirty minutes before the actual lesson.

Peter is very glad, that he’s a smart student in mathematics. He knows, how much some of his fellow classmates struggle with easy equations and gets the appeal to just not do homework for a subject that isn’t fun.

Some minutes later, the bus stops in front of his high school and Peter rushes out. He checks his phone again, but Ned hasn’t written him again after Peter sent a message explaining that he overslept.

Backpack in his left hand, Peter rushes towards the school and pushes open the heavy front doors to get into the main hall, from where he would get to his class. Right on time with the bell he gets to the door of his classroom and is greeted with some students going outside to take a breather in their five-minute break.

“There you are.” Peter looks up and sees his best friend Ned, sitting at his table, waving to him. He pushes through the other students and joins Ned inside the classroom, taking the seat next to him.

“Man, Ned, I overslept soo bad. When I woke up this morning, May was already gone. I don’t get how i slept on, through her getting ready, she must’ve been loud enough to wake me up! Then i was super confused why she didn’t just wake me up, but I honestly think she has so much on her plate right now, she just probably forgot, or thought I was just having school at a later time.”

Ned and Peter sit next to each other, heads together, talking and laughing.

When the teacher comes back, some minutes later, they stop and turn towards Ms. Fitz. She is one of their teachers. The other one being Mr. Harrington, who was often a little absentminded. Now, Ms. Fitz starts the lesson, and the two boys listen curious.

…

“Wanna come to my home?”, Ned asks Peter, after their last lesson and Peter agrees eagerly. “Yes”, he exclaims. “Let’s go, i’ll text May on our way. If we’re fast, we can still get the bus in time.” The two boys quickly get out of the classroom, but they get held back when the principal comes down the hall. “Mr. Parker, would it be possible for you to come to my office for a little talk?”, he asks and smiles softly at the fourteen-year-old.

“Yeah, sure“, Peter retorts and turns his head back to Ned. “I’ll try to make it quick. Let’s meet up outside, in front of the bus stop.” Then he turns back to the principal and together they walk down the hall, Mr. Morita having his hand on Peters back.

It was a short walk, and before he knew it, Peter sits inside of the principal’s office.

“Mr. Parker, I just wanted to ask you, how you and your aunt are doing? I know you uncle died just a few weeks ago, and that this is a very difficult situation you find yourself in. A situation that might be similar to you, more than you yourself realise. Mr. Parker, I remember your aunt and uncle coming here, before they registered you for this school, telling me about the hardships you’ve already faced in your early life. Your parents died when you were just a little boy, and I can only imagine how hard that was for a four-year-old boy. Especially, when you had to move states from your previous home at your parents, to live here with your extended family.”

Peter swallows hard. He hadn’t seen that topic coming. He realises, Mr. Morita wants to make sure that he can deal with this big loss, and that his principal might be afraid of Peter falling apart, dropping his grades, and therefore his chances of getting into college, because of his uncles' death.

“Thank you, Mr. Morita, I really do appreciate you calling me here, to check up on me and my aunt. I, …, well, I think May and I are doing as good as we can, regarding our situation. We just moved, a few weeks ago. But I am sure you already know this. I don’t want to make my uncles death into a thing for me, you know? For me to use as an excuse to not meet my standards in school. I wanna do my best, to stay within my own expectations, and I would let you know, if it becomes to much for me to handle alone.”

“Mr. Parker”, the principal exclaims. “I’m very glad to hear you speak up for yourself in such a respectable manner. I am certain, you will come to me, or another teacher at this school, should you face difficulties because of the things you experienced up until now. Thank you for trusting us to handle any situation accordingly.”

He places an envelope in Peters hand. “This is for your aunt. I would appreciate if you’d pass it along to her.”

After that he sends Peter on his way and the young teenager closes the heavy door to the principal's office carefully, before bounding down the hall, to the outside. It had been only about ten minutes, that he had spent in the office, but he had most likely missed the bus.

He jogs towards the bus stop, and when he gets there, he sees that Ned had waited for him. His asian friend greets him with a smile and a half hug and seconds later the boys are on the sidewalk, walking to Ned’s home.

Peter quickly explains to his friend what Mr. Morita had wanted and Ned listens attentively. “Wow, Peter, that is pretty nice of him actually.” He nods appreciatively. “Do you wanna stay over night?”

“Nah, I think I should head back home around dinner time, actually. May will be waiting for me and i should make sure to eat dinner with her multiple times a week. You know she’s working so much right now, sometimes I barely see her a whole day.”

“Okay, that’s fair. I get that”, Ned answers and then leads Peter up to his moms flat.

Ned’s mum was already at home, cooking something, and when her son come through the door, Peter in tow, she looked up and smiled happily at the boys. “Hi Peter, it’s so good to see you. How are you getting on?” “Fine, thank you for asking, Mrs. Leeds. May is coming home just at dinner time today, so Ned and I thought I could hang out here, if that would be fine with you?”, Peter asks politely.

“For sure, you can, young man”, the asian woman said and turned back to the stove, where a big pot, filled with delicious smelling food, stood. “Ned just got the Lego set of Death Star; you might like to do that one together.”

At that, Peter turns to look at his friend with big eyes. He’s enthusiastic and he would love to do a Lego, but he also doesn’t want to push himself onto Ned, so he doesn’t say anything and instead, waits for Ned to decide.

Ned leads Peter up to his room, where he closes the door behind them and sits down on the floor. “I would like to do the lego with you, Peter, it’s just, well, I don’t think we’d get it done today. What do you think about doing it over the holidays? That’s not really far away anymore.”

Peter nods. “You’re right. Let’s meet up the first week of the holidays and do the Death Star then!” With that, it’s settled. Both teens are excited for it. Peter pulls out his phone from his backpack and quickly sends May a message, explaining that he is at Ned’s and that he will be back for dinner.

Today Peter and Ned do their homework together, while they gossip about their fellow students. “You know what i’ve heard?”, Ned teases Peter, after they’re done and lay tiredly across the floor. “Huh”, Peter hums and turns his head towards his best friend. “I overheard two teachers talk about, someone important coming to our school, to advertise for their internships in technology. I think I heard them say i might be SI. Think about it, we’ve already seen Oscorps and now we might be able to secure a school trip to Stark Industries. Omg, Peter i’m so excited I almost bursted in school, but I had to make sure to tell you alone, so we wouldn’t get into trouble.”

Peters face falls into a perfect mask of surprise. “Ned, that would be awesome!” he excitedly says, and a big grin stretches from ear to ear. “That would honestly be amazing. Do you think we could ask Ms. Fitz or Mr. Harrington?”

“Oh, for sure! They must know if we’re going.”

Chapter Text

A week later, Mr. Harrington took their class to the atrium, where Mr. Morita, the principal, held a little speech about college and university and ended his performance with telling the students at Midtown High school, that there would be another school trip. He took a tactical pause and then announced, “we are lucky to announce that we were able to get a spot to visit Stark Industries in just a few weeks. This is a very rare opportunity and we’re happy to be able to provide this for our students. Your class teachers will provide all of you with permission slips for you to attend. Please make sure, that your paperwork is filled out correctly.”

Peter and Ned turn to each other hastily. “They really did it!”, Ned grins. “We really can go to SI, this is so amazing.”

“Yes. This is brilliant”, Peter adds and when Mr. Harrington approaches them, they each take a permission slip. “I need to get May to sign this. I’ll try to ask her tonight. She should get home early today.”

Ned takes the other slip, that’s being held to him by Mr. Harrington and stuffs it into his backpack. “Yeah, you have to make sure she let’s you go. It would be so boring without you.” They get up from their chairs and step towards the hall that leads them to their next class.

…

September 2005:

It’s a real shit-show. It’s a nightmare. It’s the worst thing that could’ve happened to Pepper. And there is nothing she can do. Absolutely nothing. It isn’t like she can launch an attack on anybody or do anything to make the search party anymore sufficient, because everybody is already doing absolutely everything they can.

Her cheeks are stained with tears and the mascara she’d applied days ago. She can’t even remember when that had been. She knows she wasn’t able to take care of herself, beside some quick trips to the bathroom to use the toilet, she didn’t do anything else. She is in constant despair, not knowing where her son is. Thinking about who had the opportunity to take him and what she is supposed to do now, all the time. She just didn’t know.

She knows it is just as hard on Tony as it is on her. He doesn’t show it though. While she is crying the entire day, Tony is rather stoic and cold. She knows this had shock him to the core, but she desperately wishes he would be able to show it more, be there for her.  

She feels terribly alone, at this time and she can’t help herself but think it isn’t supposed to be like this, feel like this.

They are in their Malibu residence, they had just come back from a trip a few days ago and when they had walk in, the house was empty and silent. Pepper had known right away that something felt wrong.

She and Tony look around and try to make out, where their son could be. They were away for a work trip. Tony had needed to approve of some Stark Industries business in Egypt, and they had decided to let their newly four year old son in a nanny’s care.

He was a very good child, he rarely cried as a baby, he was a big sunshine, always smiling and grinning at people. He was Pepper and Tony’s most precious little gift, and they wouldn’t trade him for anything.

So, when Pepper stands inside and has a bad feeling settling inside of her stomach, her nerves begin to tingle badly. Because Tony’s still occupied with rearming the alarm of the house, which protects them from getting robbed, the young woman walks through the halls, towards Theo’s room.

“Theo”, she calls out. “Daddy and I are back home, honey.” Pepper walks up the stairs and turns towards the rooms at the end of the hall. One is a personal room of Tony, one is for herself, the other is their shared bedroom, with neighbouring bathroom, and the last of four rooms, is Theo’s.

The door is decorated with his name. It’s closed and for a second, Peppers pulse calms and she thinks to herself; “He’ll be in his room, the nanny’s probably asleep in the guest room, it all will be a misunderstanding.” But when she pushes open the door, and she doesn’t see her little boy, but instead a trashed room, she freaks out. The bed is away from the wall, where it’s supposed to stand, the small desk Theo got for his fourth birthday is broken in the middle, there is stuff all over the room, the walls are dirty, like someone smeared dirty shoes all over them and there are Theo’s clothes everywhere, scattered across the floor, bed, even on top of the broken desk are some.

Pepper gasps. For a second she can’t get any word out, and she’s just standing there, watching the room, being overwhelmed and not knowing what to do now. And then all hell breaks loose.

Pepper continues to search for him right away. She runs around the house, calling out for her little boy, tears already dripping down her cheeks. She feels that something is seriously going wrong with this situation. So, when Tony joins her search, both of them now calling for their son, without getting any answer back, the cold feeling creeps from their stomach to their bones, where the cold hurts and slows their movement, to their hearts, until they ache and both parents have teary eyes.

Theo is gone.

They find the nanny a moment later. She was supposed to just look after Theo for not even three whole days. She is laying in one of the guest bedrooms. She doesn’t move when Tony gets into the room, and he knows right away that there must’ve happened something to her. He already suspects that she’s dead, because searching for Theo had not gone quietly, and if that didn’t wake her, well… then probably nothing does.

At the sight of her, Pepper screams. She rans to her and tries to wake her up, but nothing works. Tony, who already thinks that she’s dead, watches his girlfriend shake the unmoving girl and sees how she checks her pulse. The girl is dead. She has some substances around her mouth, which would later be identified as a drug, that poisoned her, and when Pepper and Tony turn her, to lay on her back, it’s visible that her pants are stained with pee, which often happens right after death.

When Pepper gets back up on her feet and turns towards Tony, she says; “Oh Tony, where is Theo? She was supposed to watch him the whole time. And now she’s dead and our son is gone.” Then she starts crying again.

Tony feels as if something inside his chest tears itself apart. He feels terribly bad, as if he’s suffocating. “I’ll call the police right now”, he says, and backs towards the floor, to have Jarvis, his house implemented AI, call the FBI. It took just a few minutes, maybe five, until the police were en route.

Pepper and Tony had to sit down in the living room, which was basically a free space with a beautiful glass window front, and there they wait for the agents to arrive.

…

They didn’t find Theo. The police arrive at the same time as the paramedics and Pepper leads them to the dead babysitter. After she’d made sure they were taking care of her, she joins Tony in the living area. The police and FBI agents now search the house from top to bottom.

When the police troop, that’s been specialised for this specific situation, is done sweeping the house, they get back to the FBI chief to shortly debrief. After that, the FBI chief comes to sit down with Pepper and Tony.

“Mrs. Potts and Mr. Stark, I know this must be an awful event for you, which is also very traumatising, but I need you to tell me everything you know. Think about it, who could benefit from your son being kidnapped? The public doesn’t even know about your relationship, not to think that you two are parents to a little boy… I worry, someone very close to you might be responsible for Theo’s kidnapping.”

Tear streaks are drying on Peppers cheeks, and Tony has a far-away look in his eyes, trying to remember anyone who could’ve said something suspicious in the last few weeks, but his mind is so preoccupied with worrying about his presumably abducted son, that he can’t make any real sense of his thoughts.

After that, it only gets messier. The FBI has made sure to use the specialised group of agents, to set them onto the search for Theo Andrew Stark, and Pepper and Tony are forced to sit back and watch them search for their lost boy, without being able to help.

On the first days, the FBI still reports back to them with many strategies and theories, where their son could be and how they will continue the search party. 

The FBI watches the houses camera footage with Pepper and Tony, trying to make out any evidence and information on how Theo might have been taken, but they have to deem it unhelpful, because it was nobody on it, so they have no direct leads in that direction. They watch all of the footage from the 432 cameras Tony has installed inside and outside of the mansion. It’s about 4320 minutes of footage they have to watch, but they get nothing out of it.

The intruders must have shut down the cameras via a bug or something they implanted within the system, because there are 432 different angles of the mansion, on some of them there is Theo with the nanny, but they see no stranger because at some point the video footage just replays.

The nanny they hired, is someone who worked for them more than once, she was someone they trusted, and the background check the FBI orders brings nothing forward, so they can finally rule her out as someone who might have helped some intruders get into the house.

After they ruled that out, the agents ask Pepper and Tony to keep thinking, if they had any enemies that were able to kidnap a young boy, but neither Pepper, nor Tony knew someone that would do such a thing.

Then they’d turned to other kidnapping cases, to see if there were any circumstances, they could link to the disappearance of Theo Stark, but this also, didn’t bring up any new clues, on where the young Stark boy could be. There were about the same amount of kidnapping of young children under the age of five, as every year.

At first it had looked like the FBI had some leads, and that the search was going somewhere, but the longer it took and the smaller information they got, the more Pepper and Tony lost their hope.

It was simply very unlikely to find their son intact, after a longer period of time. Especially because they still hadn’t gotten a ransom after two weeks of uncertainty, angst and sadness, as well as anger. There were simply no grounds to find their son. Absolutely no new leads. Theo Andrew Stark just disappeared from the face of earth.

…

2015:

Peter and Ned were super excited to go home to get their permission slips for SI signed. While Ned got the required signature from his mother right away, Peter had to wait until May got home in the evening.

The boys say goodbye to each other and go separate ways at the bus station. When Peter comes home, he opens the front door and rips his backpack off his shoulder, to fling it into the corner under the kitchen table. He quickly whips himself something to eat and then goes into his room to do his homework.

“First comes homework, then the fun time”, he promises himself and giggles happily. He can’t wait to get back out there to patrol around Queens and save some civilians from petty thieves and help the elderly over some tricky rail intersections.

So, he goes and get’s his costume, to be unrecognisable and climbs out of his window. He starts his patrol near his own street but then swings further away to da a big route today.

Peter notices that more and more people seem to recognise him, which contributes to his decision of taking some pictures of himself while Spider-Man-ing. He took his old camera with him and when he finds a nice quiet place, he probs it up against a building and swings from one frame to the other, so the pictures have some nice moves of him on there.

He’ll print them later and bring them to the small magazine shop. Asking the printer of the newspaper if he wanted some exclusive photos of Spider-Man couldn’t hurt. And maybe, he’d even get paid a little money.

…

After his vigilantism, he get’s back home, where he puts his clothes back into the box above his wardrobe, and pulls out the permission slip for Stark Industries from his backpack.

He brings it into the kitchen, where he lays it down for May to see, on the small table, and then he goes to heat himself some food up. He takes a larger portion, so there will be enough for his aunt, when she get’s back from her job, and then he eats alone.

Chapter Text

Stark Industries Field Trip – July 2015

The day of the booked Field trip rolls around and Peter excitedly gets ready in the morning, picking out a nice outfit to look very presentable. Since it’s only May who works, and the income is less than Peter ever experienced, he only shops at flea markets and second-hand shops.

He gets to school by bus, meets Ned in there and together they get out at the school stop. The class is supposed to meet at the big school yard, so Ned and Peter steer in that direction. When they appear at the designated meeting place, some of their classmates are already there, such as Eugene Thompson, who looks annoyed and tired at the same time.

Ms. Fitz and Mr. Harrington are both standing in the middle of the small group of students, that are already there. All the other classmates still have about ten minutes to get here, until it’s time to get on the rented bus, that’ll take them upstate to the Stark Tower, where they get their tour.

It takes a little while, but one after the other, the missing students arrive at school and join the group that's waiting for them. Mr. Harrington goes around, asking for some of the permission slips, that still needed to be approved and when he’s seen them all signed and ready, he nods satisfied. “Okay guys, i’m proud of you all! This looks very good. I have my list here, that confirms that you all are allowed to go on this field trip, and I am so happy that both Ms. Fitz and I will join you for today. I mustn’t remind you again, to please bring forward your best behaviour today, right? Well, that’s that then.”

Behind them, the bus slowly rolls onto the school yard. “Right on time”, Ms. Fitz murmurs, looking down at her watch, and Peter believes he’s the only one who heard her, because of his enhanced hearing ability. “All right, please board the bus in appropriate speed, don’t fight over places to sit and let Mr. Harrington and I sit in the front.”

There are some students that stand right at the door to the bus, who are the lucky ones that get to board the bus first. Of course they chose the last row to sit with multiple friends. Ned and Peter don’t have to wait too long to board either. They get in and simply chose one of the seats in the middle of the bus and sit down.

It’s going to be a two-hour ride, so Ned opens his backpack to pull out a card game, that he wants to play with Peter. He turns to his friend. “You wanna play?” Peter agrees and that’s how they kill the time, until the bus stops in front of the Stark tower.

“Wow Peter, just look at this beauty”, Ned admires the tower and smiles adoringly. Next Ms. Fitz get’s up from her place and asks the student to get off the bus and wait in front of the tower, until she comes back after registering the class. Mr. Harrington nods along and agrees to look after all of the students until his colleague comes back.

Then they all get off the bus.

First thing they do when Ms. Fitz gets back with badges and name tags for the students, is that they each take one and get to stand in a group in front of the tower. Then they go inside and most of them are very impressed by what they see.

The hall that’s presented to them, is very large, there is a long reception area with a lot of workers, and there are so many lifts that will fit them all, if they’d have to change the floor. Peter and Ned are eager to look around, taking in the sight before them, with big round eyes.

They had been to Oscorp Industries before, of course, but now standing here inside the Tower, they realise that Stark Industries seems even more impressive. And they haven’t even seen the labs yet.

Ms. Fitz and Mr. Harrington round up the students and wait for someone to attend to them. While Peter and Ned quietly chat with each other, like most students, a middle-aged woman with her blonde hair in a professional bun approaches them. “Hello, you must be the group from Midtown Highschool, right? It’s a pleasure to see you here. From what your principal has told us before, when scheduling this trip, he mentioned that some of you have been to Oscorp Industries before. Now, while some of you might expect us to share the things that makes us different to Oscorp’s, I need to make sure you understand that we’re not able to lay everything out for you, because of legal reasons. But I am happy to share and explain to you everything that’s possible, within our rights.”

The woman tells them about her name at last and then mentions them over to the elevators. “We will look at the offices for public services first, where you will learn what we’ll do in the case of any bad publicity regarding Stark Industries or even Mr. Stark himself. I will then show you to the laboratories, where you can work on some very simple tasks that were previously build for you. Sometime in between, we’ll hear a short presentation, done by Ms. Potts, down in one of the bigger conference rooms.”

The group moves closer towards her, and they get advised to leave their backpacks inside of the lockers, that are in a cluttered area in the middle of the lobby. Mrs. Jansen, the group leader, goes over there with the students and together they put away their personal stuff. Peter, Ned and Michelle share a locker. Michelle Jones doesn’t have real friends, because she just moved to Queens.

When all students put away their things, Mrs. Jansen waves them to the lifts, where she explains how to ride one. The lifts are operated by an AI and it’s sufficient to just tell “FRIDAY” where to go. The first group of students leave the lobby area with Mrs. Jansen and Mr. Harrington. The rest of the students are able to see the lift go up and stop at the office of public services, where they shortly after follow.

When all students are together in front of the public services offices, Mrs. Jansen begins the tour and shows them around. She begins with stories like the first time the world suspected it was Tony Stark inside the suit of armour, and the office had to work overtime trying to debunk these myths, only for Mr. Stark to turn around and tell the whole world on live television, that he is Iron-Man.

With the help of a projector, she shows some of the articles that been released by the press during that time and explains in detail how the office tried to work against the rumours and gives details, such as how often they couldn’t go home right away, but had to stay many hours overtime, to keep up with the media.

They move on, when Mrs. Jansen greets a male office worker, who is ready to show the students the actual work done on the computer. He shows them which Stark-owned writing and editing program they use and how there is an AI implemented on each computer, so their work is supervised.

The students gather around his computer and the noise that surrounded them a minute ago, has died down. They all look very impressed by the demonstration and both teachers are happy the field trip for their students starts out well.

They stay in this department for some time, until Mrs. Jansen looks at her watch and tells them that they will move on in a few moments. “Please don’t leave anything behind. We won’t come back here today. Now I will take you further up, where we’ll meet with Ms. Potts for the presentation. She’ll also answer questions you might have about SI and possible internships here.”

In groups they board the lift again and it moves up with them to an open area, where Ms. Potts already waits for them. Peter immediately recognises her, and he turns to Ned to poke his side with his elbow. “Ned, look, it’s Ms. Potts.”

“She looks just like on the press photos”, Ned whispers. When the rest of their classmates arrive and get out of the lift behind them, the students get pushed forward a little and step closer to the blondish woman. She has mesmerising blue eyes and looks radiant. She’s wearing a dark long skirt and a dark blue blazer over her cream-coloured blouse. Her heels are kicking on the floor.

Peter thinks for himself, that she is a beautiful woman and for a second, his mind wanders to his own mother, whom he didn’t really remember much. It must be nice if you’d have someone like Pepper Potts as a parent, he thinks and get’s sad for a split second. He wishes he would remember his own parents a little better. Most of the time he doesn’t remember them at all, and when he does it’s only by chance. Whenever he tries to truly remember how they looked like and what they did for him, when he was little, it’s like his mind get’s frozen and there’s nothing to remember.

So, it’s not very surprising, that he sees Ms. Potts abilities as a mother, it had happened with female figures in his life before, that he imagined them as a parent to him, although they usually were people he knew for a while or at least had a connection to. When all the students stand in a half-circle around Ms. Potts, Peter pulls himself out of the thought spiral and goes to stand with Ned, who moved a little to the left side and now stands closer to Pepper Potts and Mrs. Jansen.

“Hey everyone”, Ms. Potts starts. “I’m glad that we were able to book this school trip for you and i’m even more excited to be here and able to present you with a little presentation about the history and future of Stark Industries. I will also inform you about the internship program we sponsor here and after i’m done, i’ll give you some brochures for more information on the internship program. Now let’ start with the journey, where i’ll show you some short videos of Howard Stark’s work and progress through the years, until we get to this timeline and Howard's son, Tony Stark.”

She launches into detail. Telling a lot about Howard Stark, his dreams, legacy and family building, while she shows some carefully chosen pictures on the screen behind her. The students sit on chairs, that were placed in a half circle, so the students are facing Ms. Potts and the screen wall.

It’s amazing to hear her talk about it. She’s using such enthusiasm and Peter and Ned notice her knowledge that she has over the firm, it leaves them stunned, only able to listen to her carefully. Other students like Flash seem not too interested in what she had to say, but that didn’t even matter to Peter. He hung onto Ms. Potts words like a starved child, hungry for knowledge about whatever Pepper Potts was willing to give them.

“When Howard Stark died in the tragic car accident most of you probably know about, his son, Anthony Stark was appointed the new owner of Stark Industries and he and Obadiah Stane co-lead the company, until Mr. Stark, in 2010, discovered Stane’s disloyalty and disobedience towards the company’s best interests, in order to gain full control of SI himself, which got him fired.”

Ned nods quietly. He and Peter knew about that, like most of the students in this conference room, but hearing it from the CEO of Stark Industries was something else, then just hearing and seeing it on the news. They had been very young when that happened, so hearing it in the timeline string was very interesting and captivating.

“After that affair, Mr. Stark decided for us to no longer produce any weapons, and instead we focused on inventing new technologies, while Tony Stark uses Stark Industries innovations sometimes to improve his Iron-Man suits. We know about the controversial opinions about the company’s history with weapon manufacturing, but we try to change and evolve the firm into better innovations.”

Pepper Potts steps aside and turns on a short video. On the screen wall, the students can see a detailed video about the latest innovations of SI. They get to see a little inside view of the laboratories, which they will visit later on.

After the video, Ms. Potts turns the presentation towards the information about the internship program, that will be open in a few weeks, and the scholarship they want to invent within the next year. She passes around the promised brochures, when she’s done and then clasps her hands and says, “Okay, I will take you to the lift now, where you join Mrs. Jansen again. You will go see the labs now, where you can try out some tests and after that you’ll be done with the tour. I am very pleased to have made your acquaintance and wish you a very nice day here. I hope to see maybe some of you for an internship again, take care.”

Outside they join Mrs. Jansen, and they go to the laboratories. The first one they visit is one for SI employees. They’re not allowed to touch anything there, and can only watch what they’re doing, so after a while its get’s annoying for some students, not Peter or Ned though. Mrs. Jansen decides to move onto the intern labs then, and there they have some tests waiting for the Midtown High students to try out their luck or knowledge.

For a while the young students tinker around, trying out a lot of different things. At some point Peter has to go to the bathroom, so he approaches their group leader, Mrs. Jansen and asks her, where to go. She sends him out of the lab, down the long corridor, she says he can’t miss it.

So, Peter goes alone. When he’s done and ready to rejoin his classmates, he goes back the way he came, but he must’ve made a wrong turn, because he now stands in front of a dimly lit double door, which he didn’t remember from before. Nervously he scratches his head and approaches the door carefully. When he’s close, the light that’s lit up the corridor, turns a little brighter. When he’s close to the door, it slides open very quietly and Peter get’s inside.

He quickly realises that he isn’t supposed to be here. It’s very quiet and for a while Peter thinks he’s the only person inside, but that can’t be, because his class got to be somewhere. He inches his way further inside the lab and then he hears someone. “Dum-E pass me the screwdriver, please.” Peter sees a small weird looking robot, rolling around, passing a screwdriver to a man.

The longer he looks at him, the more he realises, he’s really not supposed to be here. The man in front of him is the one and only Tony Stark, and Peter just walked right into his personal lab. He stands frozen, about thirty feet, away from the man and just stares at him. When Mr. Stark continues working on whatever he has on his workbench, Peter realises he has to draw attention to himself.

Before he can think of something to say or do, a voice from the ceiling calls out to Mr. Stark. “Sir, I must inform you that there was unauthorised entry to your personal lab. Lockdown procedures will take place in the next thirty seconds, if you don’t intervene now.”

At that, the man’s head shoots up and around, and Peter stares into hard brown eyes. Mr. Stark has his brows drawn together, which makes his face even scarier. “Who are you?” he barks out. “And what are you doing in this lab? How did you even get in here? Nobody can get past Friday, usually.” At the last word, he rolls his eyes and looks up accusingly.

“I’m so sorry, Sir. I am here with my class. Midtown High? I went back from the bathroom and didn’t realise I took a false turn. I- I hope i’m not in trouble. I can go back out right now”, Peter squeaks out in an embarrassingly high-pitched voice. He already turns to the door, when the man speaks up again.

“Oh, yeah.. the Field trip. Don’t worry young man. I’m just a little confused, why my girl FRIDAY didn’t warn me earlier, when you’ve been at the door. That’s not how she learned to handle these situations. Well, whatever”, he rolls his eyes. “I’ll just bring you back to your class. Come on.”

He approaches Peter and leads him back out of the lab. Together they take a left and then a right, and suddenly Peter stands in front of his class. Mr. Harrington, who seemingly already missed him, lights up with a smile, when he sees Peter and he greets him. When he sees, who brought back Peter, his friendly smile quickly turns into a strained one.

“Oh, Mr. Stark, what a surprise to see you here. I hope my student didn’t do anything to get into trouble?” But when Peter turns around, he sees Mr. Stark wave his teacher off and throwing himself a little smile. “Nothing to worry about, for sure. This young man simply got lost, so I took it upon myself to bring him back in one piece.”

Peter looks back toward his classmates and sees his best friend Ned, with comically torn open eyes and a gaping mouth. The whole interaction with Mr. Stark doesn’t take more than three minutes and as fast as he appeared, he’s gone again, after returning Peter to his class.

After that the Field trip comes to an end, and the students get led back down to the lobby, where they collect their backpacks and board the bus again. On their way back to school, Ned squeezes Peter out about his interaction with Tony Stark.

Chapter Text

When the students can go home after the school trip, Peter and Ned sit together on the bus, until Ned has to get off at his stop. Peter rides the rest of the way alone and gets out at his bus stop. He quickly goes home, where he does his homework before cocking something to eat.

After he’s done, Peter get’s his onesie out for his daily patrol and swings out his bedroom window, when he’s masked up. He shoots the web across the street, where it attaches to the side of a lamppost, and uses his arms strength to pull himself over to the other side. There he lands on the roof. He looks down into his neighbourhood to make out, if there is any civilian in need of his assistance.

For a while, it looks like it’s once again a pretty boring afternoon, nothing seems to happen around here, and Peter decides to slowly swing his way around the city, to look out for troubling parties.

So, he shoots some webs to swing himself along the big buildings, that give Queens it’s distinct identity and ends up on top of a small bakery. From there he can watch the busy street and perhaps help one elderly or two, he thinks to himself.

It only takes about fifteen minutes, until Peter spots an older woman, walking with a walker. She has two bags hanging from the handles of the walker, that seem pretty heavy, but Peter continues to just watch her, for now. She doesn’t seem to be in immediate need of some help, so the young boy let’s her be.

After some more time, Peter sees a small child trying to cross the intersection, but being unable, due to a broken traffic light and the heavy traffic that’s been going on on this street. Peter jumps down from the bakery roof and jogs towards the girl.

“Hi, would you like some help crossing this intersection?”, Peter asks and hold out his hand for the little girl. She has two small ponytails with blueish ribbons and she’s wearing a raincoat over her clothes. At his words, she looks up at Peter and his outstretched hand and a small smile builds on her face. “Yes, please”, she reveals a gap between her front teeth.

Peter takes her hand in his, feeling the warmth that’s radiating from it, and together they carefully cross the street. When they get to the other side, Peter let’s go of the little girl’s hand and turns to her. “Do you live around here? Do you get home alone, fine?” The little girl has a beautiful smile, when she answers, „Yes, my family lives just around the corner”, and she points to a house. Peter looks at it and then nods appreciatively.

He accompanies her to the doorstep and then bids his goodbye and swings away. He pulls himself up onto a roof and looks around, trying to make out if there is anyone else nearby who might need his help. But he doesn’t see anyone. So, he decides to swing back home. He needs to get there before May, so she won’t notice his absence and somehow questions him.

When he’s swinging back home, he still watches the streets and corners in the dark, in case there’s something going on. He’s still on his way, when he runs out of web. He didn’t know this was something that could even happen, so he’s really surprised when his left wrist just doesn’t shoot any webs anymore.

Peter had to take a short swinging break on top of a sunroof. He tries to figure out, what’s going on with his webs, but can’t find anything wrong with the slits on his wrists, so he’s entirely unsure of what to do now. He tries to squeeze his wrist, but nothing happens and the normal white web stuff, doesn’t come out now. So, he decides to get down from the building he’s currently on, to walk home. He wants to get the mask off his face but can’t risk it now.

Twenty minutes later, he crawls up the side of his apartment, until he gets to his window, to climb in. Once inside, he pulls the window back down, get’s out of his sweats and hoodie and stuffs them away into the box.

He cracks open his door to listen if May got home, while he was out, but luckily, he doesn’t hear anyone, besides his laboured breathing. He smirks, proudly and shuffles towards the bathroom to shower the struggles of the day away.

When he get’s back out of the bathroom, he walks through the apartment, sitting down on the couch, turning on the TV. He watches some boring cocking show for a few minutes, until he changes the channel to a news report.

On there, is a reporter in front of something, that must be a green-screen, showing a video of Peter as the Spider-Man swinging around Queens, helping civilians and doing little stunts. He didn’t notice anyone taking videos of him, so he’s very surprised by what he sees on the news right now. The news reporter, a young man with the name Carl Grey, is telling the viewers about the new sighting of a new Super-human which the public seem to call Spider-Man.  

Peter sits up excitedly. This is the first time, since he became Spider-Man, that news are talking about him and he wants to soak up every moment of it. Peter gets out his phone to look at the internet and basically Youtube, to assess which kind of videos about him have been posted on there.

He finds very few, as he’s only now being very active, like being out every or every other day, instead of his earlier tries, where he’d only gone out into the city like once a week. Back then, he had to get used to his powers and the things he could do with them. While he watches, the idea of taking photos of himself, while being on patrol, comes back into his mind.

Peter turns off the television and goes to his room. Somewhere, he’s sure, must be the camera his uncle had gifted him years ago. He shovels through the things in his room, trying to find the place where he must’ve put the camera previously.

A few minutes later, he looks in one of his drawers, where he finds the little camera. It’s the perfect size. Very small, so very transportable, when Spider-Maning. He puts it into his wardrobe, next to his Spider-Man costume and closes the door.

Because he doesn’t have anything to do for the rest of the day, he decides to go to bed for a quick nap, until May get’s home when they’ll eat dinner together. He drops his clothes down on the floor and crawls under the covers. He closes his eyes and within an instant he’s deep asleep.

…

Tony is in his lab, working on different small projects, when he get’s interrupted by FRIDAY, reminding him of a meeting. “Thank you, FRIDAY”, he praises the AI and moves to put his working tools onto the table next to his project, that’s scattered all over his workbench, preventing him, from putting his tools there.

He turns towards the sink, to wash his hands, that are pretty stained from oily substances and dirt and then walks out of his lab. He uses the lift to make his way up to his Penthouse, where he showers quickly and throws on some new clothes.

Instead of choosing a well-fitted suit, or something his dad would’ve chosen, Tony slips into something comfortable; dark pants and a grey sweater, which has some sort of print on it. Tony doesn’t care much about it, he just slips on shoes and makes a beeline for the lift, to take him to the conference room, where he has his next meeting.

FRIDAY brings him down fast and without any stops in between, as usual. Tony thanks her, when he gets out, and then searches for the room, where his meeting will be. Pepper Potts, his CEO and girlfriend, is coming his way, having some documents under her arm. While Tony usually is ill prepared to go into any meetings, the woman he appointed CEO at some point in the long period of knowing each other, is always over prepared and has all the stuff together, that could be needed for conferences like these.

When she reaches his side, she takes the documents and shoves them into his waiting hands. While she’s doing that, she’s explaining to him, what the conference is about, and what’s in these documents, as well as what he needs them for. Then, after she did that, he turns to the door and leads the way into the room. Pepper Potts follows him and sits down to his left side, after they greeted all the present representatives of different firms.

Tony doesn’t really like meetings like these, but he knows that he has to attend some, in order to keep Pepper happy and the business running. Pepper takes a lot off his hands, and regarding their relationship over the years, it’s only fair to attend to some important meetings. They’ve had it hard enough already.

The meeting takes its course and Tony and Pepper are doing their best to make everyone involved as happy as possible, without stepping out of their way to do so. This was something Tony had learned from his father; not to give in when people became complicated, but instead to diplomatically solve the presented problems, until everyone was at least decently satisfied with the outcome.

After two hours of back and forth, some deals are made, and Tony decides for this meeting to end. He thanks all the representatives for their attendance and clears out the room with Peppers help.

Together they make their way up, to the penthouse, where they step into the living room-space and sit down on some armchairs. “Would you like something to drink?”, Tony asks Pepper and swiftly moves to stand up again. “Perhaps a cup of tea”, the woman says and smiles slightly.

So, Tony moves to the kitchen and prepares both of them something to drink. For his girlfriend he prepares a steaming cup of her favourite sweet tea. After he poured the hot water, he adds two sugar cubes and then moves on to his own drink. He takes out a bottle and pours himself a glass of scotch.

He returns to Pepper and puts down the drinks in front of them. When they sit together, sipping their drinks, both of them drift towards sentimental memories. Their son had never been here. Tony built the Tower long after he disappeared. The mansion in Miami is vacant and run by some of the old household staff, while Pepper and he rarely retuned there. It is just painful looking at the rooms and places they shared for so long with a third family member, someone who was so very important to them.

Theo’s room has been closed for such a long time. Inside is a room like any other now, without a trace of a child. At some point during the years after Theo’s abduction, Tony and Pepper had cleaned out the room, thrown away all the things that got destroyed and put away those that weren’t. Pepper had decided to lock to door for good and she keeps the key in one of her jewellery drawers.

The once beautifully decorated, comforting, warm home, turned into a place they didn’t want to return to. A place where they were being plagued with memories of a young child playing there, that never returned home to them.

Pepper and he lived at the Stark Tower, most of the times. It is most convenient that they have their workplace here. It’s just too easy to wake up here, get ready for the day and then go down to the conference room, or the CEO’s office, where Pepper was most of the time, or to drive down to the lab, where Tony spent almost all his time.

Tony knew at some point they would probably return to the Malibu mansion for good, staying at the Tower was something that was originally thought to be a transitional solution. They kind of got stuck here, but Tony had been thinking of building a new home or returning to Malibu for quite some time. They had previously rented an apartment, but when Tony got kidnapped in Afghanistan, Pepper had made arrangements to be close to something she associated with Tony, so she stayed at the Tower, and he just moved in too, when he got back.

At first, it was a big thing they needed to get used to, but after some time it got easier.

“Pepper, i’ve been thinking about this”, Tony begins the conversation. “I know you probably don’t want to move back into the mansion. But I feel like we overstayed our stay here. Look, this has never been something that we seriously considered a long-time solution, and I feel like now is a good time to start thinking about what we should do. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, but we need to talk about building a new home. We’re long back together, i’m not going anywhere, and if you feel the same way, I want us to build a new home.”

When he looks at his girlfriend, he sees that she has tears in her eyes. “I don’t want to move back into Theo’s childhood home. Tony, I just can’t do that. I can’t even look inside the room. If you feel like we should settle down in a new own home, let’s look for an apartment to rent, yeah?” She sniffles lightly and closes her eyes.

Tony sips his scotch and watches his girlfriend. He knows how much this still hurts her, hurts both of them. He knows that she sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night, to slip out of bed and roam the penthouse to find a spot to think and cry. This happens often around the weeks approaching the date of Theo’s disappearance, and also the weeks before and after his birthday. He knows she’s mourning the loss of their child everyday. But around special days, Pepper is especially vulnerable and likes to deal with it alone, without the public eye hover her shoulder. That’s also the reason why she doesn’t go out when the dates are imminent. She hates paparazzi taking pictures, in a time, when she’s clearly grieving.

“An apartment could be nice”, he answers her and smiles tiredly. “I’ll ask Friday to make some calculations, and then we can decide between her results, what do you think about that?” Pepper simply nods and Tony makes himself a mental note to present Friday with that task.

Chapter Text

2007:

The search for Theo is abandoned for some time now. When he disappeared in 2005, Tony and Pepper did everything in their power, to find him. They stuck to the original team of FBI agents that was searching for their son, but after some months, they were informed, that the team would no longer work together to find their son. They said the team would be dissolved, because there weren’t any new leads on Theo and the people were needed in other departments.

Pepper and Tony had gotten a newly appointed person for Theo’s case. Mr. Harry Moles turned out to be a young FBI agent, that had been briefed very thoroughly with their case. He had made an appointment with them, to see how they could go about the situation.

He explained that the search would be smaller, because there were less people than before working on it, but that he would always be on call for them, in case he did find something regarding Theo’s case. He sounded sincere and that was something Pepper and Tony appreciated very much.

When he asked Pepper and Tony to share some details, for one regarding the disappearance of their child, and for the other, how their relationship had changed, both adults had explained what had happened after the worst day of their lives.

…

“Pepper and I are having troubles getting on with our normal life, without our son”, Tony shares with the young man. “It takes a toll on us, that nobody is able to find any information about Theo. If he wasn’t my son, I wouldn’t even believe his existence. There’s nothing to be found, that could lead us to any conclusions of what might has happened to him that night. To us, it seems as if he was wiped off this world entirely. Pepper and I, well, we don’t know how to talk to each other anymore. We’re constantly fighting, even though we know; the bigger threat is out there, probably with our son in their claws. It’s just very hard on us.”

“It doesn’t matter what we do”, Pepper joins in. “We’re here together. We are in this together. We have a son together and he is gone. We don’t know where he is, and we don’t know what to do and how to deal with it. How could anybody tell us, how to deal with the disappearance of our son? I just think a lot of our problems come from not knowing what to do and being utterly helpless.” She sighs.

The parents look each other in the eye, and they know they share their feelings about the situation with Theo. They know they will forever miss him, forever look for him, no matter the circumstances. But they also know that their situation looks pretty bad. They look back at the agent, who writes down some notes in his thick black notebook. He nods and scribbles down the things they just shared with him. “What do you know, at this point, about your son’s disappearance?”

“Well, it’s not too much. For starters, we know that he was taken, when we were away on a business meeting. The house was occupied only by a hired maid, that was there to take care of Theo. The kidnapping must’ve taken place the night before we returned, because the people who took our son, poisoned the nanny and left her back in one of the rooms”, Pepper begins sharing the story.

“When we had looked through the whole house and couldn’t find our son, we alarmed the authorities. They came, searched, but found nothing. Then the FBI had to be involved. With the FBI, we were hopeful that our son would resurface, and we would have him back in no time. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the FBI suggested for us to let a secret group take action, advised us to not get the public involved and strung us along for a long time. I wish, at some point, someone would’ve sat down with us and told us how slim the chances of finding Theo really were”, Tony ads tiredly.

“I’m sorry, let me interrupt you there. You say the FBI told you not to go public? Not to involve TV and the internet?”, the agent, Mr. Harry Moles, asks surprised. “Why would they do that? Didn’t they think it would be much more sufficient, if more people would look for your son?”

“Yeah, we thought that too, but shortly after Theo was taken, we got some weird inquiries, from people claiming to have Theo. When the FBI checked those claims, they all got ratted out, to be false. We even had some arrests. The agent that supervised our case, was afraid a public announcement could complicate things even further”, Pepper explains.

“Ahh, alright, I get that this is a very delicate situation, and I understand how turning to the public eye, might’ve been a mistake at that time. I want to roll over some leads from the earlier searches, if you are okay with that. I will let you know immediately, if I find out anything”, Mr. Moles Jr. suggests and picks up the notebook to make more notes.

“That sounds like a good new plan”, Pepper agrees and looks at Tony for confirmation. When she get’s a nod from him, she and Mr. Moles hash out some details.

…

2008:

No leads on Theo’s case.

And Tony got kidnapped.

When Pepper get’s informed that he is gone, in Afghanistan, she abandons her flat and moves back into Stark Tower, because that is the only thing reminding her of Tony. She doesn’t have much of his stuff, because they are broken up, but she knows it would be okay for Tony, if she stays in the Tower.

Her mornings look lonely. She is surrounded by Stark Industries members, has Obadiah Stane at her side and all the important staff members from SI, but she feels alone, nonetheless.

When a video of Tony resurfaces, being threatened by the Ten Rings, Obadiah Stane reacts very slowly, despite Pepper’s constant begging to save the man.

He is warning Pepper, to not give into anything they want, but instead to let him do all the decisions, promising he’d get Tony out in no time.

Pepper trusts him and his expertise, to know what to do, but Stane does nothing at first. Instead, he waits out, tries to co-lead the company by taking Tony’s seat at the companies' board, while preparing to overtake Stark Industries. When they are informed that Tony has been found and is on his way back, Obadiah cheers and acts as if he’s happy about Tony’s safe return, but Pepper is suspicious of him. Especially, because she experienced how much he had done to drag out the process of getting Tony back, just to have a little more time being the board director.

Finally, Tony returns after two months in captivity, and Pepper had never been happier to see him and to hug him again. When she arrives at the airport to meet him, she cries and falls into his arms, joking about job hunting, which she definitely didn’t have to do. Both of them are really happy to see each other again.

After a few days, Tony sits down with her and tells her what had happened in his captivity.  He explains, how he had woken up in horrible pain, how he had felt when he looked down his chest, finding a bandage around his torso, covering up the electromagnet that had been embedded in his chest. How much it had hurt, when he first tried to stand up, still being hooked up to a car battery. How he needed to push away his fear and work for his kidnappers, even though he just wanted to cry and scream.

He tells her about the man he was held in captivity with; how much the scientist Ho Yinsen had helped him. And how awful he felt right after his death. How awful he still feels. He blames himself for what happened to the man, once they’d finished building Tony’s very first suit. He shares with Pepper, that Ho Yinsen is someone he had already met earlier in his life, during a technical conference in Bern. He didn’t pay him much mind though, because Tony was very drunk that night and thought too highly of himself.

When the man had helped him build a suit to escape, Tony was forced to put his egoistic ways of thinking aside, and work with the scientist. In the end it had worked out. Tony and Ho built the suit, that lead to Tony’s escape through the dessert, until his friend, James Rhodes, found him.

When Pepper asks about the implant at his heart, Tony explains to her, that a missile struck the floor close to him, which resulted in shrapnel being imbedded into his chest. That’s why Ho had implanted the electromagnet; to keep the shrapnel away from his heart. It was the only way to keep Tony alive.

After a few minutes of silence, Tony shares with Pepper, that he wants to stop the weapon building Stark Industries has been participating in for centuries. The reason, why Tony doesn’t want to be responsible for any more weapons designed and built by his company is, that the missiles that hit the convoy and the group of people in the Afghanistan dessert, is one of Stark Industries missiles.

Pepper is shocked, when she hears what had happened to Tony in Afghanistan. She cries for him a lot and begs him not to leave her side again. For a while he listens to her, and the only place he can be found, is his personal lab in the Stark Tower, from where he manages everything.

When he comes back and announces in the press conference, that he had decided to freeze the Stark Industries weapon production, in order to stop being a part of war crimes, America had been shocked, and the internet had gone crazy. In the media was a huge outbreak of fanatics, who were deeply disappointed in the new course SI would take on.

The first weeks after Tony’s comeback, are a wild time, where Tony and Pepper’s life is turned upside down. When Tony later reveals that he is Iron-Man, it takes on a whole new level, and they don’t find any time for themselves. Often, they rush from one press conference to another, sometimes together, even more often separately.

It creates a whole new tension between the two of them, and at some point, Pepper and Tony have to sit down to discuss where their relationship might go. The previously set boundaries are being ignored much too often, and Pepper explains that she can’t keep going like this.

“Tony, we’re not even together. We’ve been grieving for our child for so long. I understand your pain and I know you only want what’s best for us, but I don’t feel comfortable with me being at the Tower anymore. I want to move back into my apartment, but I don’t want you to think i’m leaving you behind. I just think, i’ve spent too much time here, with you, tricking my mind into thinking we could be together. But it still hurts me so much, to be with you here, not knowing what happened with my son.”

“I do understand, Pepper”, Tony quietly agrees. “I only want what’s in you best interests. I want you to be as happy as you can be. You know, i’m only a call away. I’ll drop everything, when you call”, he promises her, before letting her move out.

While Pepper goes back into her apartment, Tony concentrates on his company, dealing with some of the fallout, and continues to build his suits. Later on, he introduces his friend James Rhodes to one of his suits, when he gifts it to the US Army.

He endlessly works on improving and maintaining the quality of his suits. That fills the hours of his day; sitting in his lab and tinkering on the mechanics of his suits, improving the quality of his AI program, and whatever.