*Tony's POV*
Things had been normal again. Slowly, the anxiety had been trickling away, and his vocalization around people had expanded from Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey to Bruce and Natasha as well. They were the easiest to talk to on the team; quiet, but they could hold a conversation, and they knew when to give someone space.
The rest of the team had seemed excited, apparently hearing about Tony starting to expand his comfort bubble. However, he wasn't quite ready to talk to the whole team yet. He could hardly talk to two people at the same time without having a freak-out moment. But things were so much better, and the whole team was giving him the space he needed for the time being.
In all honesty, Tony was hoping to talk with someone new today, most likely Wanda (which would lead to him talking to Vision, no doubt) but it all depended on how he was feeling in a few hours.
Today had been a great day so far, Pepper was getting to stay home today, even if she had work. So they had breakfast before cuddling on the couch, Tony helping out with the stacks of paperwork that his fiancé had to deal with.
Then they moved on to lunch, which was rushed as Pepper remembered a virtual meeting she had to attend, leaving her rushing off about fifteen minutes ago. Since then, Tony had been on his phone scrolling through pointless apps as he sipped some coffee.
His thoughts flashed momentarily to the conversation Pepper and Tony had about Peter Parker, the teenager that they were thinking could be Tony's intern. He hadn't made any move to contact the kid yet, but he felt like he should get his personal life under control before he ventured into teenager territory.
Once he was talking with the whole team again, he might think about sending an e-mail to Parker about an internship at the tower. Of course, Tony wasn't just going to let the kid become his personal intern immediately. At first, he'll just work on the low levels and bring Tony coffee, the usual stuff for new interns, but once he's more experienced he'll be moved to the higher labs or Tony's personal lab.
"Friday, put a reminder for me to e-mail Peter Parker about an internship." Tony called out distractedly. "Do it in about a week..." He trailed off and took a deep breathe. "Hopefully things will be back to normal by then." He mumbled to himself, pushing his messy hair out of his face as he stood up and stretched.
"Of course, boss." Friday chimed as an answer, sounding polite as ever. Satisfied, Tony walked into the kitchen and sat at one of the bar stools, where his laptop sat on the counter. He had been dying to pull up the training room footage of Natasha training with Spider-Man.
Tony had been very invested in getting the spider-themed vigilante/hero to join the team or at least have some communication with them, but things clearly hadn't been going his way lately. He was afraid to miss any important information, not the mention how curious he was to learn more about the spider.
The video was played through six or seven times before Tony really tried to pull information from it, at the moment he was just trying to assess the upcoming hero. He seemed rather small if that made sense. And his voice was almost too high. But there was no way Spider-Man was any younger than eighteen. No teenager or child would be capable of doing all the things the spider had done, right?
Still, Tony couldn't quite pay attention to the video feed as he kept noticing more and more worrying details. This guy was skinny, but he had lean muscles. And he was definitely short. Whether he was an adult or not, he was short either way. Standing at about five feet and maybe five inches, but that was pushing it.
There were other things that weren't adding up either. Spider-Man's limbs were a little too long for the rest of his body, a common trait with teenagers. And he seemed to be a little awkward in his body, another thing similar with teenagers. Tony bit his lip and zoomed in on a well-angled frame that showed Spider-Man very well.
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.
Turning around, Clint waved his arm around dramatically. "You had to see it too, Nat! If it weren't for the fact that he was enhanced, I would have been afraid to break him!" He shouted, plopping back down on the couch. "Shit, I'll admit— I was afraid to break him. Even with the enhancements he still looks so... so small and-and breakable."
Choosing to stay silent as he ranted, Natasha was secretly panicking. So Clint was figuring this all out a lot faster than she thought he would. Not good.
"Maybe I'm just being paranoid..." Clint's voice trailed off, sounding defeated, which drew Natasha's attention back to him. She felt like shit for making him think he was overreacting but she also didn't want Spider-Man to be exposed. "What do you think, Nat?" He turned around and faced her, eyes holding all the trust they had grown to have for one another.
Why would she lie for someone she didn't know? Clint trusted her more than anything and she was going to throw that away for the sake of one teenager? But even as she felt the guilt of lying filling up inside of her, Natasha could not bring herself to tell her closest friend the truth. "I think you need to calm down and let Spidey come to us when he's ready. Whatever it is that you're worried about is probably fine and you need to trust him." She said instead, keeping calm. She didn't lie, but this would hopefully keep Clint from trying to piece anything else together.
With a sigh, Clint nodded and turned back around to stare at the television. "Yeah, you're right, but it sucks that we know nothing about him." He mumbled to himself, Natasha could hardly catch it from her place in the kitchen.
Natasha let out a quiet, relieved sigh and turned around to the instant noodles she had been making. "Now that you're done acting like a paranoid father, do you want something to eat?" She called out, hoping he would.
But all she got was a small 'no' followed by a fake yawn. Clearly Clint was not in the mood to socialize right now, so she let him go without prying. He would reach out to her when he was ready, and she would be right there to help with anything he needed.
As she pulled out a fork and began eating her noodles, appetite long gone by now, she heard approaching footsteps coming from the hallway. Turning, Natasha was met with Steve, who looked tired.
He walked in, not noticing her at first, and grabbed a protein bar from the pantry, jumping as he spotted her. "Are you okay?" She asked simply, not looking up from her noodles. She didn't want him to feel pressured into telling her, but it seemed like he needed to vent a little.
"Oh, Natasha—" Steve sputtered, still a little shocked. "Um, I'm fine." He continued in a smaller voice, looking at everywhere except for her. With the raise of an eyebrow, Natasha had the ex-soldier sit in front of her. "Fine, I'm not doing great." He admitted, beginning to nibble on the protein bar he grabbed.
"It's just been a lot to worry about lately." Steve said tiredly. "Tony... ugh, Tony is always worrying me and... and then Bucky is just as bad..." He trailed off, looking down at his half eaten protein bar. "The whole team is just a mess, Nat."
Natasha nodded slowly, understanding the concern. Clint was also being worrisome. Everyone on the team had something they were dealing with, and they tended to try and solve the problem on their own, which hardly ever did any good. "Steve, please take care of yourself. I'm worried too, but you can't help anyone if you aren't okay yourself."
As she spoke, a memory that had been long since forgotten pushed into her mind, the same words echoing in her thoughts.
"I'm fine! Stop worrying about me and just-just... just go away and let me work!" Tony shouted, voice cracking. His shoulders shook and his knees nearly buckled under him. Dark eye bags bruised his eyes and he hadn't showered in days, let alone eaten or drank anything.
Steve and Natasha were standing beside one another, trying to coax the man into a seat before he collapsed. Of course, it was normal for Tony to work himself to his limits, but this was a whole new level of concerning. Natasha was ready to jump forward and catch the man if he passed out or fell or anything and Steve was trying to calm him down a little.
"You all— the team— all of you... you're always trying to stop me..." Tony was no longer shouting, but there was a dangerous edge to his voice as he spoke. "I-I know what... what my limits are..." Natasha felt a prick of worry strike her again as his words began to slur, he was clearly disoriented by this point, he needed to rest right away. "Just-Just go... go! I'm... f-fine..." Steve's eyes flickered to meet Natasha's as he looked at a loss for words.
"I'm fine! F-Fine!" He let out a choked laugh, sobs breaking him down. "Leave me... leave me a-alone!" Tony was shouting again, he took a step away from them and staggered. His knees finally buckled and he began to fall, but Natasha had been ready and ran forward to catch him in a fluid movement.
Holding him up as Steve rushed forward to help, Tony tried pushing her away weakly, finally meeting his limit. Steve grabbed Tony and gently sat him on a chair. "Friday, get Bruce down here." Natasha said as Steve made sure to keep Tony from trying to stand up again.
"No! No, just st-stop..." Tony's words were slurring together, and he was hardly able to keep himself sitting upright. Steve was holding him up slightly by placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "I don't need any... any... help."
"Tony, please just... we don't want you to keep doing this to yourself. And right now, you're tired and not okay." Steve said in a calm, caring voice. "Bruce needs to make sure you aren't sick or really hurt. You know he just wants to help. None of us want to hold you back, but you can't push yourself to your very limits. It isn't healthy. You're smart enough to know that."
Tony shook his head and looked ready to argue, but Steve beat him to it. "No, Tony, listen to me." He said softly. "You can't help anyone if you aren't okay yourself."
Tony looked between them, looking lost and sad now. His shoulder shook and tears were falling down his cheeks, leaving him silently sobbing. But he nodded his head, letting his shoulders slump as he finally gave into his friends' worries.
Steve's eyes widened slightly, as if he was remembering the same memory as her, but he smiled. "Using my own words against me— how evil, Nat." He joked softly, finishing his protein bar. "But you're right."
Steve stood up and stretched lightly, throwing away his trash and giving her a thankful smile. "Thank you, Natasha." He said gratefully, turning away and walking back down the hallway.
Now finished with her noodles, Natasha threw the box away and put the fork in the sink.
Tony had started talking to her and Bruce, so maybe she could go up to his floor and see how he was doing. It was better than sitting in the kitchen and thinking about the teenage hero.