You're the guy my dad never shut up about? | S. Rogers [1]

45. The letter

The avengers stared at Peter in shock. Spider-Man has just revealed his face to them and he's not even fully aware of it.

The team stood up in surprise and Clint, on trying to push his chair back, fell with the chair and stared at Peter from the ground. Peter, confused as to why the Avengers are staring at him with wide eyes and dropped jaws, heard Bruce whisper "your mask"

Peter looked down at the red mask in his hand and his face paled "oh no" he breathed.

"You're a kid. You're just a kid" Rhodes was shocked.

"I'm much older than I look" Peter quickly said but he knew he was found out. They know he's actually a kid and not as old as he put on to be.

"How old are you?" Steve asked. 

"Sixteen" he answered.

"What's your name?" Tony questioned. 

"My name is Peter Parker and I go to Midtown High School" Peter truthfully said.

Tony typed the information into the tablet and furrowed his eyebrows "I can't find you. Why can't I find you?" He asked.

"Because Gali made sure no one could find me. At least not Spider-Man me" Peter informed.

"Gali?" Natasha asked "she knows?"

"She's known for a year. And him-" Peter pointed at Bruce "he's known for a couple weeks"

"Thanks for throwing me under the bus" Bruce sarcastically said.

"I still say that he shouldn't join the Avengers" Clint said as he stood up.

"Why not?" Peter whined.

"Because you're a kid. You're sixteen. You should be in school" Clint noted. 

"School is over" Peter informed and reached for a pop tart.

"How did she find out?" Thor asked, referring to Gali knowing about Spider-Man. Peter shrugged.

"Don't know. But she's taken me under her wing ever since. She's helped me a lot, Gali. Aunt May is very grateful" Peter said through mouthfuls. He suddenly turned to Bruce "hey, thanks again for patching me up"

"Is it fully healed?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah. I was sore for a while, managed to get out of gym class for a couple of days" Peter smiled.

The others were confused and waited for Bruce to explain himself. He sighed once he saw no other way out of it "He got shot a couple weeks back and called Gali for help. I patched him up down in the lab" he hastily said.

"When was this?" Tony questioned. 

"When you guys were at the aquarium. Gali and I were the only ones here. She called me Robert and we began to talk about middle names and then gave Thor a second name because he only has one" Bruce said.

"So what's his middle name?" Clint asked.

"She said Christopher or Brandon, but I don't think they fit him" Bruce said. Thor thought about the names and then made a face.

"I don't like it" he shook his head. 

Light chuckling filled the room and Bruce suddenly remembered something "oh my god!" he said.

"What?" Kami stared at her boyfriend. 

"About ten minutes before Peter called Gali, I went down to the lab and saw her sitting in one of Tony's cars. The old black convertible. I saw her through the glass and she seemed to be reading a letter. She stashed it in the glovebox and that's when I entered and we talked about middle names" Bruce hastily explained.