peter parker whump ✓

"unmask yourself, spider-man."

au where no one knows who spider-man is and his homemade suit is not as awful as the canon one bc he's a genius intern at SI who managed to make his suit whilst he was there without anyone noticing

set during peter's senior year; obvi non-compliant to the mcu spider-man films, aou (bc i love jarvis) and civil war never happened and all is happy and well between the avengers, and bucky is here because i love bucky

tw: self-harm, mentions of sexual abuse (bc i need this to be whumpy)

~NO POV~

Peter was an idiot for thinking he could get away with interning where the Avengers lived, because those Avengers wanted to find out his alter-ego's identity. He was a genius in the sense that he made a suit in Stark Industries without being caught, but stupid because now people were chasing after him and he wasn't good at hiding.

Although, you could say he was good at hiding because he was bitten in sophomore year and now it was senior year, and no one had noticed. Ben, before he died, didn't, May still didn't know, and Tony Stark hadn't figured it out.

Which is ironic because Peter had become Tony's favourite (and personal) intern, meaning the two spent a lot of lab time together. Maybe it was because Tony never personally sought out Spider-Man, or because Spider-Man wasn't as famous in Queens as he was in Manhattan. 

And he was good at hiding personal things, like his crippling mental-health, his grief, his PTSD from several different things such as watching his uncle die, getting assaulted at a young age, and his unhealthy coping mechanisms. 

Physically hiding was different, since it was damn near impossible not be seen in a blue and red spandex suit. Maybe the reason why the Avengers found out he existed because he saved the building right next to Stark Tower and became popular in Manhattan. His secret wasn't worth losing a daycare full of bright little kids and puppies.

Peter loved puppies.

So, he was fucked. The Avengers were surely gonna catch him hiding right under their noses, right?

Wrong.

It had been three weeks since Tony told Peter that Nick Fury wanted to find Spider-Man since he was an enhanced human running around unsupervised, and that the Avengers were stuck with that job. And in those three weeks, no one noticed that Peter was who they were looking for.

"Peter, you're a teenager. Teenagers know all the social media hacks to finding someone. Help me find Spider-Man, please."

Peter was taken aback, and slightly amused at the irony. "Have the Avengers given up?"

"No." Tony said simply. "We're just... tired, and some fresh, young eyes could be useful. You reckon you could do some teenager shit and find out who he is?"

"I'm not sure. Can't JARVIS find him?" 

Peter tried not to smile. JARVIS knew who Spider-Man was, but Peter was smart and begged the AI not to expose him, and with an audible but not visible smile, JARVIS agreed. In the time Peter had known Tony, JARVIS had also become quite fond of him. 

Besides, JARVIS knew why Peter didn't want to be exposed and tied down by some super-pirate-spy. As much as he'd love to join the super secret boyband known as the Avengers, he didn't fancy being known. And people knowing only risked Aunt May, and since he let Uncle Ben die, he'd do anything to make sure he didn't do the same for May.

"JARVIS said he couldn't find him, which makes me really want to find Spider-Man, because if my Rather Very Intelligent System can't find him, he must be incredibly special."