A Family of Flaws

Chapter Eighteen; Things Feel Normal

A sick feeling landed at the bottom of Tony's stomach as he kept picking out the terribly teenager attitude that surrounded the masked hero. But that was insane. He could be reading the situation entirely wrong, maybe he was just a small guy who was awkward around people. He could be a fully grown adult and not a fucking teenager.

Flicking through the next few frames from the video, Tony was sure he was going to lose it if he didn't find something to tell him that the spider wasn't a teenager. But no one else seemed bothered. Natasha was an ex-spy, she was trained in every way to read a person like a book. If Spider-Man was a teenager she would have picked up on all the clues long before Tony. So he had to be acting paranoid, just a little too anxious for his own good. Spider-Man was definitely an adult.

But, even as Tony pushed the laptop to the side and turned away from it, he couldn't help the suspicious feeling that prickled at the back of his mind. Spider-Man was hiding something but that didn't mean he was a teenager. It could just be a personal thing or a safety precaution.

Taking in a deep breathe, Tony decided it was time to do something useful with himself. He had nothing to do and watching television felt like it would just send him over the deep end at this point. He was sure he had some small trinkets in his bedroom somewhere that he could work with absent-mindlessly for the time being.

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*Natasha's POV*

Spider-Man was much younger than he liked to act and she was not going to let that slide. Having a soft spot was never good for someone with as many enemies as her, but children tended to be her weakness. Natasha wouldn't say he was a little kid or anything, but he was far from an adult. If his size didn't give some red flags, then his voice and attitude could be a dead giveaway. Not to mention all the small details that most people tend to skip over. Weird things like how he walked, shifted his weight, so on. It was a long process of watching a person very carefully to get all the proper facts, but she had come up with the final answer: Spider-Man was a teenager and that was not okay with Natasha.

  She didn't know if he was a mutant or just enhanced, but he wasn't a normal teenager. Though, that did nothing in regards to her worries. But she didn't want to bring it up with anyone just yet. The team (especially Steve and Clint) would go crazy if they heard that Spider-Man was younger than eighteen and she didn't want to compromise the spider just because she didn't like how young he was.

  So she decided not to tell anyone about it. But she was going to make sure that she was there for Spider-Man. Natasha knew he would be terrified if anyone knew he was a teenage hero, he was so adamant on keeping his identity a secret after all, but she would tell him that she knew and make sure he was well aware of how willing she was to help. It was better for him to be mad or scared or whatever emotion he'll feel when she tells him she figured it how rather than for him to be afraid to come for help just because of his secret identity.

  There was just one small problem. Clint was also an ex-spy. Even if he liked to act like a goofy idiot, he was very observant and he didn't let small details go unnoticed. And he had definitely been catching onto the same things that Natasha had. If he put it all together there was no doubt in her mind that he would go full-blown dad-mode and tell the rest of the team. It's not like he would want to compromise Spider-Man, but he's very overprotective of kids and he would do whatever it takes to make sure they are safe, even if it means upsetting them.

  "He's a lot smaller than I remember." Clint was rambling, tossing his head back with exasperation. "I mean— I knew he was smaller than average and stuff, but when he helped us fight Sludge I didn't really... really look, y'know?" Natasha steadied herself and tried to think of something that would distract the archer, or deflect his growing suspicions.