Dependence

Chapter 4

"You know that wasn't actually a test right?" Peyton spoke but didn't look up from her computer. Peter wasn't sure why, but in the last two days since they arrived back at Queens, she had been glued to it, and it definitely wasn't Tumblr.

"What? No. Mr. Stark said it was." Peter insisted.

"Peter, dude, he only said that after you asked. He's Tony Stark, he didn't want his pride being hurt but if he made it sound like it was planned for him to get rejected, then it's all okay." she explained.

"But... You think he actually wanted me to be an avenger?" he asked.

"Oh yeah. No doubt. Plus, he announced his engagement to Pepper right as we left... To the reporters that were there for you." she said. Peter looked at her, dumbfounded. She smirked at him.

"Don't worry, next time there's an alien invasion or something equally drastic I'm sure you'll be asked again." she said.

"I can't believe I passed up the opportunity to be part of the Avengers!" Peter seemed so disappointed. She sighed and closed her laptop.

"Peter, what Avengers? When was the last time you saw the Avengers do anything? Most of them are outlawed, The Accords still aren't completed, though Tony is doing his best, and there hasn't been a huge need for them. Once something does happen, things will change, the Avengers will be reassembled and you'll probably do something stupid to be a part of it and, bam, honorary Avenger until afterwards when you're all over the news." she shrugged.

"How do you know something big will happen?" he asked.

"Peter, are you kidding me? Something big always happens... I just pray to God you keep your sorry ass alive." she said. He shook his head and looked down at her computer.

"So what are you doing, exactly?" he asked her.

"Oh! I haven't told you!" she exclaimed. He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm searching for our birth father." she said. He took this information in and bounced it around in his mind.

"Have you found anything?" he asked, after accepting his sister's new project in his mind. She shook her head.

"Not much. All I know is mom went to MIT and never partied accept for one spring break where she went to tons. It could have been anyone. She didn't even have a MySpace page or anything. I'm trying to figure out who her friends were and more about the trip but May knows absolutely nothing and- even with my best attempts to be subtle- she's getting suspicious." she sighed.

"Maybe we could ask Mr. Stark for his help?" Peter suggested. She looked up at him.

"Why did I not think of that before? I could have asked him when we were staying at that tower of his!" she exclaimed.

"Maybe we'll ask him next week when we go over there." he said.

Tony had been serious about mentoring Peter more and he apparently had taken a liking to Peyton. She was now an actual intern, though with way less duties of a normal one, and the two were scheduled to go to the tower at least once a week for Peter to train and them to both work on the suit and other projects. Peyton assumed he was getting lonely, though, he did have Pepper and Rhodey and Happy and Vision so that didn't make total sense... Maybe he needed some more fun people around so that he could be childish. That was probably it.

"Totally... Think he'll help?" she asked.

"Yeah! He'd love that! It'd be a new challenge for him or something." Peter shrugged. She nodded and they heard the fire alarm beep some and May shouting.

"No! I burnt the meatloaf!" she exclaimed. The twins eyes widened and they giggled as they got up to go help their aunt.

~~~

Tony finally finished giving the the full on tour that they hadn't gotten to see before when Peter was fully healing and Peyton was already exhausted. Why was the place so big? He led them down to the lab so they could plan more stuff for the suit. Peyton wasn't really sure why she was there and why she was given an internship. She wasn't really important, she was just a side character in Peter's movie.

Peter had began working on the new web concoction (it was supposed to make them even stronger) when Peyton turned to Tony. He was messing with some things on a hologram and the three of them had worked up a comfortable silence, but now Peyton needed to talk to him.