What Peter didn't expect was to be woken up by the blaring music of his Star Wars themed ringtone. With a tired groan, he shifts underneath the covers and blindly reaches for his phone on the nightstand. It takes him almost the entire chorus to grip the phone and answer it.
"H'llo?" he sleepily mumbles into the phone.
"Peter? Why do you still sound half asleep?" May's voice chirps from the other end. She's the definition of a morning person and it always kills Peter how peppy she can be after waking up.
"'Cause you woke me up," Peter answers as if it's painfully obvious. Half of his face is still buried in the pillow, making his words come out muffled. May hears that sleepy voice almost every morning and it faintly makes her smile. Peter continues to keep his eyes closed in hopes that he'll be able to fall back asleep after the call.
"You aren't up yet? It's almost one thirty in the afternoon." Peter's eyes snap open and he shoots up to a sitting position.
"What?! No one woke me up!"
"Honey, relax! It's the weekend, there's nothing wrong with a little extra sleep. If anything, you've earned it. I just thought Stark would've had you up early. That's why I was worried when you didn't call." Peter rubs his face with his free hand.
"Yeah I was expecting he would, too." He takes a long, deep breath. This is too much excitement for having just woken up. "Thanks for calling May. I'm doing good." Guilt suddenly floods him as he remembers that he's practically lying to her all over again.
"That's my job! I hope you have fun this weekend and be sure to keep me updated. I love hearing you talk about all your sciency stuff." he chuckles at her enthusiasm and nods.
"I will, May. I love you."
"I love you too. Have fun!" May hangs up and Peter is free to stretch out his stiff limbs. He checks his phone and unfortunately confirms that it's 1:28 pm.
"Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?" he asks as he looks up at the ceiling, even though he knows that's not where the interface actually is.
"Good morning, Peter," F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s disembodied voice responds instantly.
"How come Mr. Stark didn't wake me up?" Peter asks curiously as he combs through his curly bedhead with his fingers.
"Boss wanted you to get as much rest as possible. He told me to not wake you. I'll notify him that you are awake."
"No, no. That's alright," he answers quickly, anxious at the thought of bothering Tony. "I'll just go see him. Where's he at?"
"He's in the workshop with Dr. Banner." F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s words catch Peter by surprise. Bruce being here isn't much of a shock, but what are both of them doing in the workshop? Shouldn't they be in the Medbay or penthouse or something?
"Thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y., I'll go see them." He pops his knuckles before pulling the bedsheets off and involuntarily yawning. He knows Tony is right about needing more sleep, but he doesn't like wasting time when he could be working on the suit or out helping people on patrol. He notices his folded Spider-Man suit with the mask placed neatly on top at the foot of the bed. If Mr. Stark is trying to keep me off patrol, teasing me with the suit isn't the best way to go about it. Either that or he wants me to bring it down to the workshop with me? It still doesn't make sense why Bruce would be down in the workshop, but Peter decides to bring the mask with him in case he needs it to dull his senses again. If he needs to come back to get the rest of the suit, he can later.
He slowly opens the guest room door and peeks out to see if there's anyone else on the floor. The kitchen appears to be empty and he doesn't see anyone sitting on the couch either. That's good, the less people to see him with bedhead the better. Not that he wouldn't absolutely love to meet literally any of the Avengers, but he doesn't want to meet them as Peter Parker. He wants them to see me as an equal, not as a kid. Once he knows the coast is clear, he carefully tip toes into the open and awkwardly holds his elbows. His Spidey Sense would have warned him about anything, but he still feels a bit anxious. He's in Tony Stark's building after all. Still, he can't help but gawk at everything from the floor-to-ceiling windows to the intricate decorations.
When he walks into the elevator, F.R.I.D.A.Y. selects the workshop floor for him and he heads down. The lower he gets, the more he can hear the distinct voices of Tony and Bruce through the walls. As the elevator doors open, Peter's face pales. The hologram in the middle of the workshop is displaying the aftermath of the warehouse that Toomes purposefully collapsed on him. It's a massive pile of broken concrete and bent rebar. Peter quickly realizes that it isn't a still image, but footage from that night. Dust slowly rises from the rubble and he can see a small gap near the center that he knows for a fact he had to crawl out of.
"...and we know Toomes wasn't the one making the tech. Someone else must've made the wings, which is considerably concerning since we only have Toomes in custody-"
"Mr. Stark, what's going on?" Peter questions through a shaky breath, interrupting Bruce's deducing. Tony immediately snaps his head around to look at the teenager, who's on the verge of panic. Peter's eyes are glued to the hologram. Out of the corner of his eye, Peter can see Bruce quickly press a few buttons that cause the video to disappear.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., I thought I told you to tell me when the kid was awake," Tony mutters angrily before walking up to Peter to obscure his view. "Nothing, we were just comparing some notes. Nothing for you to worry about," he assures. Peter instantly moves past him to get a better look at Bruce and the now lack of a hologram.
"Good afternoon, Peter. I'm glad to finally meet you." Bruce walks up to him, trying to diffuse the tension, and extends his hand. Peter cautiously takes it. Even though Peter's inner nerd is screaming at him right now, he can't help but feel on edge after seeing the hologram.
"It's great to meet you, Dr. Banner." Bruce is in a typical dress shirt and jeans, which are probably his more casual clothes. Then, Peter becomes fully aware that he's still in the gym sweats he had to sleep in. Great, so much for a good first impression.
"You too, but you can call me Bruce." Bruce releases Peter's hand and nervously rubs his own together. "About the, uh, recording, I just needed to determine the best approach and understand what exactly happened that night." Peter slowly nods in understanding.
"A little heads up would've been nice," he mumbles as he turns to look back at Tony.
"My thoughts exactly, F.R.I.D.A.Y.," Tony accuses pointedly.
"It's not my fault you weren't clear on your orders, Boss," F.R.I.D.A.Y. quips. Peter can't help but smile at her witty tone. All of Tony's AIs tend to bite back eventually. Tony ignores her backtalk and gives his attention back to the situation at hand.
"How you doin', kid? Sleep better? Eat breakfast?" He leans against a nearby table with arms crossed casually.
"Yeah, sleep was alright." Peter puts on the best smile he can muster, despite still feeling exhausted. "So, what's the plan? Quick checkup to make sure I'm in tip-top Spidey shape?" He chuckles to try to lighten the mood. Tony raises his eyebrows expectantly before asking again,
"Breakfast?" as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Technically it would be lunch," Bruce interjects. Tony then turns his pointed gaze on him. "Which doesn't make it any less important," Bruce quickly adds.
"You two need to work on your co-parenting skills. Or at least get the good cop bad cop thing down." Peter smirks at them amusedly, a hint of his Spider-Man wit coming out due to his anxiousness.
"No, this is serious time. No jokes," Tony points a reprimanding finger at him.
"Peter," Bruce jumps back in, "your metabolism works at such an accelerated rate that you can't afford to be missing any meals. We aren't sure how fast yet, but it could possibly rival that of Steve's." Tony visibly tenses at the mention Captain America's name. They must still be on bad terms. "In other words, you need to constantly eat in order to sustain the amount of exercise you do as Spider-Man." Peter's eyes widen in shock and he turns to Tony.
"Don't sweat it. I trust Bruce. He's part of the team after all." Tony explains. He says "team" with slight distaste.
"It's not your secret identity to give away. What happened to 'boundaries are good?'" Peter quotes Tony's words to Happy after the Toomes fiasco.
"You're talking to the man who announced his secret identity to a room full of reporters after a week. Relax, I only told Bruce because he's here to help. Gotta be open and all that," Tony assures. That's rich coming from him.
"The point is," Bruce continues, "we have little to no knowledge about your metabolism, healing factor, and range of all your abilities. If something ever compromised your immune system or injured you, we would have to know at what doses to administer medication." Honestly, Peter hadn't thought about any of that. He has been Spider-Man by himself for so long that he has learned to take care of his own cuts and bruises. Besides, if he gets any broken bones, they usually heal in a few days or less.
"Sure, better safe than sorry," he agrees halfheartedly with a shrug. "Then after that I can get back to patrolling, yeah?"
"Baby steps, kid. Minuscule, preferably." Tony claps a hand on Peter's shoulder and looks to Bruce. "Whatcha gonna start with, Doc? Because if it's the needles, then I prefer you to be," he thrusts his thumb over his shoulder towards the elevator, "a comfortable fifty feet or more away."
"Mhm, sure, Tony. I have it under control. We need to go up to the Medbay anyways," Bruce says with understanding. Since when does Tony have a problem with needles? Peter wonders. Maybe it's the blood? Either way, Tony gives Peter an encouraging pat on the shoulder before Bruce and Peter go to the elevator. "Alright, F.R.I.D.A.Y., Medbay please."
"Of course, Dr. Banner. It's great to have you back. It's been a while," F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s kind voice acknowledges as the elevator moves upwards.
"Glad to be back." When the doors open, Bruce leads the way through the relatively silent halls to an empty medical room. It looks like a typical doctor's checkup room with various medical instruments and a bed covered in a long sheet of paper. "Go ahead and take a seat, Peter." Bruce smiles kindly and puts on a pair of latex gloves. Peter hops up onto the bed with his hands in his lap.
"This is so cool, Dr. Banner. It really is such an honor to meet you. I've been looking up to you for, like, years and now I get to be in the same room as you! It's seriously surreal! Your writings on gamma radiation were a fun read, for sure." Peter can't help but ramble. Meeting not one but two of inspirations practically since birth?! Spider-Man might the best thing that has ever happened to him.
"You read that for fun?" Bruce asks, slightly shocked, as he prepares a disposable needle.
"Well, after I was bitten by the radioactive spider, I thought it would be a good idea to look into radiation. Your research was one of the first to pop up." Bruce preps multiple vials and counts down before gently pressing the hypodermic needle into the crook of Peter's arm.
"Well, I hope it was at least somewhat helpful." Bruce smiles to him before switching the now full vial with an empty one.
"Not really..." Peter admits regretfully. "But, in your defense, none of the search results said anything about spider powers," he quickly adds. Bruce chuckles and nods with understanding.
"I'd be surprised if they had. I'll need you to put pressure on this when I remove it." He nods to the needle and Peter can't help but smile proudly.
"I won't need to." Bruce draws his eyebrows together in confusion, but slowly pulls out the needle nonetheless. A small drop of blood forms where it had been, but doesn't get any larger. Peter wipes the blood to reveal the already healed skin.
"Impressive." The Dr. Banner just called me impressive. Peter swears he's going to pass out.
"Oh y'know, it's, it's nothing," Peter stutters sheepishly. Bruce nods thoughtfully as he sets the vials of blood off to the side.
"We're going to do a few more types of tests, including a stress test, before I feel comfortable letting you do your activities. But first," he turns around to grab a paper plate with two wrapped sandwiches and an apple juice box, "get your blood glucose levels back up."
"Thank you, Dr. Banner!" Peter smiles gratefully and begins to unwrap the first sandwich.
"Bruce," the doctor insists. Peter knows he was told to call Bruce by his first name, but it feels disrespectful to do that. "While you eat, I wanted to discuss what has happened over the last year." Peter is slightly caught off guard, but he supposes they'll have to talk about it sooner or later. Even though he'd prefer later.
"Yeah, sure," he agrees reluctantly.
"Talking about something like this isn't really my...specialty, me being a nuclear physicist, but I do want to help you." Bruce sounds sincere, not that he wouldn't be, but Peter isn't exactly comfortable reliving the experience. Peter can't help but picture the caved in warehouse speckled with fires.
"I don't think I, not that I don't want to, but just the thought, and, y'know?" The words fall out of his mouth as he tries to find a coherent thought. Bruce sighs before sitting in a nearby chair.
"You need to talk to someone and unless you want to tell another person your identity, I'm your best bet."
"It's not that easy, Dr. Banner. It's not like it's fun to talk about," Peter tries to explain, getting slightly frustrated. Why does everyone think it's easy to just talk about what's making him feel crazy?
"I understand that." Bruce remains patient regardless of Peter's defensive tone. "Believe me, when I did this for Tony it wasn't exactly a walk in the park either." Peter raises a curious eyebrow.
"What did Mr. Stark need to-" Chills suddenly spread from the base of Peter's skull and the hair on his arms stand on end. All of his senses become alert to a distant, high pitched whine approaching from outside the Tower a few floors up. "Dr. Banner, something's wrong." Peter jumps off the bed to run towards the door when the floor shakes, causing him to stumble slightly and Bruce to shoot up from his chair. "What the hell was that?" Peter questions, even though he probably already knows more than Bruce does because of his Spidey Sense.
"Stay with me." Bruce ignores his question and gestures for Peter to follow him out the door. Peter follows close behind as he puts on his Spider-Man mask that he has kept a tight hold on.
"Karen, scan the Tower and figure out why-" the building shakes again and they both stumble slightly, "why that's happening."
"We'll take the stairs, just in case. I don't trust the elevators," Bruce says before opening the stairwell door.
"The penthouse floor has been breached from the outside. There's now a sizable hole through the side of the building," Karen informs Peter.
"Oh that's not good. That's definitely not good. Dr. Banner, we have a problem up at the penthouse!" They run as fast as they can up the stairs and Peter would give almost anything to have his web-shooters just to get up faster.
"What kind of problem?" Bruce calls back to Peter. Bruce is gauging whether or not he'll need the Hulk's help, but he has to make sure Peter stays safe, first and foremost.
"That's a good question!" Another thunderous crash sends tremors throughout the Tower. "Doesn't sound like a fun one, though!" As soon as Bruce opens the stairwell door to the penthouse, a flash of red flies past them and harshly collides into the wall to their left. The plaster succumbs to the impact and gives way with a loud crash. Peter instantly rushes past Bruce over to the hole that's now in the wall and sees the Iron Man suit covered in white dust. "Mr. Stark, are you okay?!" The electric blue eyes on the Iron Man mask flicker, but don't go out, and Tony stands.
"Peachy keen, kid. Bruce, get him out of here," he orders.
"Are you seriously telling me to leave after you were just sent flying through a wall?!" Peter asks incredulously.
"Got it," Bruce responds, ignoring Peter's argument.
"You know I can fight! Let me help!" Peter counters. Tony looks down at him, his suit making a mechanical hum with his movement.
"We're not going to argue. Just listen to me for once. You're leaving. Now," Tony orders. After what the kid just went through, he doesn't want Peter to worry about a fight. A loud whirring cuts into their argument, bringing a gust of wind with it. When Peter looks up, his eyes fixate and widen on the figure that flies into the room through the massive hole in the far wall leading outside. Peter is speechless. His blood instantly runs cold.
"Long time, no see, Pedro."
Notes:
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN
i love me some drama :)
Thank you for reading!