The car ride to the tower was mostly silent. I was still in shock from finding out that the person I had been texting was the actual Tony Stark, and he was currently taking me to the Avengers Tower. I was kind of worried that I'd do something wrong, and they would get mad at me or something, but I was definitely excited.
I was lucky that Mr. Stark had seen Flash beat me up a little bit, that way no one would question the other bruises. The ones from May.
Once we arrived at the tower, I silently followed Mr. Stark inside, not wanting to be more of a burden than I already was, and he led me into what I assumed to be his private elevator. On the inside, I was freaking out, totally ready to fanboy over everything, but on the outside, I was a perfectly composed "no big deal" teenage boy standing next to Tony freaking Stark.
"Floor 91 please Fri." Mr. Stark said suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts. I could feel the elevator quickly climb to the upper floors of the skyscraper as Mr. Stark spoke again.
"You okay kid?"
"What?" I wasn't used to people really caring. I mean, Ned and MJ would ask occasionally, but this was different. I barely knew Mr. Stark. Ned and MJ were my best friends so they were kind of obligated to. It was strange.
"You're just quiet. And that kid got you pretty good back there..."
"Oh! O-oh yeah I'm fine..." I answered, mentally slapping myself for stuttering.
Mr. Stark nodded suspiciously. Gosh Peter. Don't say you're fine. People know that when you say that you're lying. Why are you so stupid???
SNAP (Sorry... I promise I didn't do this on purpose. I noticed after I wrote this...)
Mr. Stark pulled his hand away from my face, having had to snap me out of my thoughts.
"We're here kid."
"S-sorry..." I said quietly. For about the billionth time this week, I mentally slapped myself. I knew Mr. Stark wasn't going to hurt me like May did, but I couldn't help the involuntary reaction oof fear whenever I messed up. It even happened with Ned and MJ sometimes. It was always worse with Ned. He always looked so guilty, and then I felt bad.
Mr. Stark had clearly noticed my change in attitude, because he almost immediately patted my back (which I hated myself for flinching at) and said "Don't sweat it kid."
He paused.
"We're also gonna talk about the whole getting shot and stabbed thing. I know you're Spiderman and stuff, but still. You're what? 10?"
Desperate to pretend everything was "fine" I made the most over exaggerated mock offense face in the history of the universe, to which Mr. Stark chuckled.
"14?" He asked.
"15." I corrected.
"Yeah yeah." He said, waving it off as he turned the corner into an open living room/kitchen thing that was probably bigger that May's whole apartment!
My eyes immediately darted around the room, carefully examining each Avenger who were all just kind of doing their own things.
I quickly felt out of place, and tried to shrink down to be as small as possible, so as not to disturb or disrupt anyone.
Mr. Stark cleared his throat.
"Look who I found!" He said cheerfully. Everyone looked up almost immediately, their eyes widening in surprise when they recognized me.
"H-hello." I said, giving a small wave. Everyone responded with their own, individual response to the greeting, and I was welcomed to come sit on the couch.
I took a spot as far away from everyone else as possible, and tried to stay as small as possible. I knew deep down that no one would hurt me, but it would forever be engraved in his mind and soul.
Natasha's POV
Red flags. Ever since Peter got here, I noticed his behavior has been full of them.
To start off with, when Tony and Peter came out of the elevator, Peter flinched at Tony's touch. I also noticed how he immediately apologized when Tony had to tell him they were on the right floor. All that had made me slightly suspicious, so I had decided to keep a closer eye on Peter while he was here.
I noticed he had bruises all over his face, what looked like a broken nose, and fairly large amounts of blood coating his skin. I decided to ignore that until a better, more appropriate time came to ask. Pietro, however, didn't have that same idea.
"What happened to your face?" He asked as soon as everyone was situated on the couch.
"Oh... Um... School?" Peter answered, well, more like asked.
"Kid, you're killing me." Tony cut in. "Some kid I assume goes to your school was being a-
"LANGUAGE" Steve cut in, causing everyone to start laughing. However, I noticed Peter was only slightly chuckling, and it looked somewhat forced.
"This kid was being a brat" Tony finished, clearly changing what he was originally going to say, but continued anyways. "And was beating the living Heaven out of the kid."
"Did you seriously change he-"
"I give up." Steve interrupted.
"Well I had to censor my language, because in case you haven't noticed, there is an innocent baby in the room." Tony sassed, motioning to Peter.
"Is nobody going to mention the fact that some random kid was beating the living Heaven out of Peter the angry puppy?" Sam asked, earning a playful glare from the angry puppy himself.
"Oh yeah. Speaking of which, Pete... Why didn't you fight back?" Tony asked, suddenly redirecting his attention.
"But I did-"
"Only when he pulled out a gun."
"He had a what now?" Clint interrupted.
"The kid's just a maniac."
"Mr. Stark. He's not a maniac. It's just that he doesn't have the best home life, and this is his way of coping." Peter piped in. My heart immediately melted for this kid. He was willing to let himself get hurt and abused by someone just so that someone could deal with their personal issues.
"Kid... That doesn't make it okay."
"I know... But another reason I don't fight back is because I could literally kill him with a single punch. And that's when I do it lightly." He added.
"What?" Bruce spoke up.
"Oh yeah! We didn't tell you. He's Spiderman." Tony said as if it was no big deal. The room immediately broke into excited chatter, and arguments.
I stayed quiet in my seat, just watching the scene unfold. However, my main focus was Peter. He was silently sitting, looking as if he was trying to take up as little space as possible. He looked slightly surprised at the sudden noise, and even fearful.
While everyone was busy arguing, I spoke to Peter quietly enough to where the others wouldn't hear, but loud enough for him to pick up.
"Is Spiderman and that kid the only thing causing the bruises kid?" I asked suspicious. All of his behavior was drowning in red flags, and I began to suspect something completely awful. A thing that no child, especially one as kind and pure as Peter should ever have to go through.
He looked up at me suspiciously, and answered quickly and quietly.
"Yes."
I have to admit. This kid was a good liar. He would have been able to fool every single person in this room. Other than myself of course. I was a trained assassin and spy. Even with my abilities though, it was still difficult to unmask the deceit.
Deciding to direct my attention away from Peter for the time being, I called out to the rest of the Avengers.
"Can you guys shut up so we can eat???" Everyone immediately became dead silent. One of the perks of being completely terrifying.
"Pete you wanna stay for dinner?" Tony asked.
"I- uh... I should probably get back to the apartment..." He said hesitantly.
"Come on kid. It'll be fun."
"O-okay."
"Great! Let's eat!"
I was the only one who noticed how Peter checked his phone, probably looking at the time, nervously. As if he knew an awful fate awaited him.
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