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Being a Stark [Superfamily]

Chapter 3

The days go on like any others; at school he’s mostly just doodling in his notes instead of paying attention, every day of the week Peter still finds himself working the evening shifts at the pizzeria (with on Friday once again having the creepy guy stalking him), on Saturday he finds himself stuck with ironing the laundry and cooking dinner as Aunt May is lying sick in bed. Sunday he’s going out of his way to capture more shots from the heroes to sell at the Daily Bugle, and in the end all he gets is more shouting from Mr. Jameson. Still, after more than a year of working with him, Peter has gotten used to it.

That guy will never be his biggest fan, and that’s okay by him.

New York is strangely quiet this Sunday evening. Peter doesn’t know where he’s walking to, really, until he finds himself right in front of the entrance to Stark Industries. Seeing as it’s a Sunday, there aren’t many people walking in and out of the building. Still, Peter finds himself evading a few hurried workers who can’t seem to get home fast enough.

A sigh escapes from his lips, and he finds himself wondering if he should get inside or not. There’s no specific reason for him to be there, but he can’t help but feel curious at what’s inside. Maybe he should go asking for that internship, but he’s not sure if they’d even accept him if he’s not a student.

He almost falls onto his face when somebody bumps in on him on his back. In surprise, he turns around and finds a whole lot of red hair being swooshed in the air by the wind that has been blowing all day. She looks hurried, especially so when she starts making frustrated noises as her books all fall down on the ground.

“Oh, crap!” she calls out in annoyance. Peter frowns, kneels down and helps her pick it all up.

“Are you okay?” he asks. The dark-skinned girl looks up at him and frowns, though Peter can still see she appears nervous despite her attempt to look annoyed.

“Yeah, or at least I was, until you suddenly came to stand in front of me! If I’m late, it’s your fault,” she mutters. Peter’s mouth falls open, and he tries to answer but can’t manage to get anything passed his lips. He wouldn’t know what to say anyway. He comes to stand up instead once all the books are from the ground, and then ends up staring right into the dark greenish-brown eyes of the girl.

“Wish me luck, shorty!” she then calls out with a wink. Before Peter can even say something in return, she’s already gone into the building, on her way to have a talk with his possible father. Man, that’s all kinds of weird.

Deciding there’s nothing else much he can do, Peter moves forward at last. The moment he gets through those gigantic door, he immediately feels a difference in temperature; where it has been hot and humid outside, now it’s fresh and ventilated enough that Peter feels like he can finally breathe again.

The inside is also completely different from what he’d expected. He remembers Oscorp had been open and full of stairs with a receptionist on his right the moment he got in. Here, it looks more like a hotel lobby than an actual business.

The receptionists are right in the middle of the room, and on the sides there are waiting-stools for the people who made appointments. There’s one big staircase that leads to the first floor, and there are about six elevators that go up. Peter wonders if all of them go to the Penthouse on the top.

He can see the redheaded girl sitting on one of the blue stools. She’s putting her tangled red curls into a messy bun, and her sneaker-covered feet are making tapping noises on the ground – probably nerves. Peter wonders if he should go talk to her, but then decides not to. He doesn’t even know that girl; why should he? Besides, she’s a bit rude.

“Can I help you, sir?” a friendly voice asks back at the lobby. Peter looks up and sees a young man smiling up at him from where he’s seated. He had one of those earbuds in his ears to call with, and the computer he’s using seems to be the latest of Stark’s design. The guy always seems up to date when it comes to his business.

“Eh, I was wondering if Mr. Stark was around?” Peter asks, figuring he might as well look like he’s here for a reason other than to stare around in awe.

“I’m sorry, but he’s fully booked for today. Do you have an appointment?” the man asks. The smile only falters a little, as if the guy actually feels sorry for him. Peter only shakes his head and looks to the side. A woman in a black dress and blonde hair is talking to the redheaded girl, and then both get to the elevator. Despite her mean attitude, Peter wishes her well.

“Eh, sorry, no. I knew it was a long-shot, but I figured I could at least try,” Peter says then. He puts his hands in his pockets and then looks down to the ground where he can see himself twitching on his feet.

“That’s true,” the man says. Then he starts looking for things on the computer, the keyboard not making any sounds at all. Peter leans forward a little bit and sees that the keyboard itself is holographic. Damn, that Stark never ceases to amaze him. “Well, if you want, he has a free slot on next Sunday about four. What exactly is the appointment for?”

“Eh, for the, eh, scholarship,” he gets out before he can really think of it. He moves his hands from his front pockets to his back pockets, and there he stumbles upon a piece of paper. When he picks it out, he sees that it’s Mrs. Potts number; the one Dr. Cho has given him. The receptionist sees it, and lifts one eyebrow, though. “But I’ve already received this number a while ago, I could maybe make an appointment through Mrs. Potts, instead?”

“No that’s okay, Mrs. Potts doesn’t make appointments for Mr. Stark anymore since she became C.E.O. of Stark Industries. I’ll just schedule in your appointment and all will be done,” the man says. Peter figures he should be looking for a name at least, so he starts looking at the man’s clothes, only to find that there’s no name-tag or anything.

But then his eyes fall onto a security-badge lying next to his pencils. There he can read the name ‘Lincoln Jones’ on it. The guy doesn’t notice it, though, eyes instead focused on the screen.

“What name can I put on the appointment?” Lincoln asks.

“Eh, Peter Parker,” Peter answers without really paying attention. Then the printer behind the guy comes to life, and a piece of paper comes out of it. Lincoln fishes it out, writes something on the top of the paper, and then hands it to the teenager in front of him.

“If there are any troubles, you can just call the number on top of the page and I’ll see if I can help,” he says. Peter only nods, not really thinking much of it but instead going back out of the building as fast as he can.

He wonders why exactly he made that appointment; is it because he just wants to talk to Stark? Or has he unconsciously decided that he is going to college after he graduates?

If so, he should really start looking up schools, no? Besides, what should he even study? It’s not like photography interests him enough for him to pursuit a career in it. And okay, yes, he’s kind of good in building things, but no way will he ever get close to Stark’s level, right?

Peter just shakes his head, wondering if he should just get back inside to cancel the appointment, and then he sees the number on the paper. It’s from that Lincoln-guy, and Peter hadn’t really payed much attention to it, but now that he actually sees it… How has he not noticed the receptionist has been flirting with him? Does it really take a phone number on a paper with a wink added to it for Peter to really realize it? No wonder he’ll end up alone!

Maybe he should just go home. Next week he’ll learn the results from Dr. Cho, and then he’ll know. He can still just bail if he doesn’t like the result.

But the problem is… he doesn’t really know what result he’s looking forward to mostly.

Tony stark knows he shouldn’t be hiding away back at the compound, but still he finds himself right there, doing nothing other than staring right outside and watching the trees shake from the sudden wind that came up about an hour ago.

Oh, he’s playing with fire already by staying away for this long, but the idea of getting back to Stark Tower and hear the words he’s so afraid to hear… nothing that he’ll do will make the burn less, so he might as well just postpone it for a few more hours.

Maybe he should get home so late that she’s already sleeping, and then he should probably get up before her… but that’s impossible; Pepper is an early riser; maybe he should sleep in, instead? That will give him, what? A few more hours when she’s at work?

But what good will that eventually do? To postpone it does not equal to avoid it. He can’t help but sigh, eyes closing when the first drop of rain lands against the window he’s staring through. His eyes go down for a second, landing on the burn-mark the Bifröst left when Thor decided to go home a while ago. He wonders how the guy is doing at the moment, but he’s probably better than Tony…

“There are surprisingly few words coming out of your mouth right now,” the familiar voice of Natasha Romanoff says from behind him. “I’m kind of impressed, really.”

Tony turns around to see the redheaded assassin walk up to him with a slight smirk on her face, and Tony can’t help but let out a sigh. If only he could joke along with her.

“I’m postponing being single again,” Tony answers sadly. His head goes down, chin resting against his chest and eyes closed. His hands are stuck in his pocket; his cellphone is turned off, and only an Avenger-emergency could turn it back on again.

“You two had a fight?” Natasha asks. She comes to stand next to him and looks outside as well. By now, the whole window is filled with raindrops. Tony finds it calming himself, though the ache in his chest is not one that just goes away. The pain is also so completely different from the one he felt right after having the Arc Reactor placed; that one was constant, it hurts even to this day even now it’s gone.

“I destroyed all of my suits,” Tony explains, recalling the events of Christmas back in 2012. He hadn’t really been himself all that time, and he’d actually thought things would get better without the suits. Still, he was wrong. “I promised her I was done, but then the scepter came, and then Ultron, and then, and then, and I just kept going.”

Natasha remains quiet next to him. He’s thankful for that.

“I don’t blame her, thought,” Tony adds. “I’m quite unpleasant to live with.”

Natasha then lets out a soft laugh, and she gently puts a hand on his shoulder in comfort. She squeezes him with all the tenderness he never really saw in her, and suddenly understands why Cap calls her a good friend.

“Looks like we’re both hopeless when it comes to the matters of the heart,” Natasha answers. Tony wonders what she means with that, but he already knows that asking will earn him nothing but silence and more questions, still. She’s probably talking about a time before they met her.

That, or his speculation of her secret crush on Barton is true?

“Should I leave you two alone or…?” the righteous voice of Captain America suddenly says from behind them. Both Tony and Natasha turn around to find the soldier standing there with his hands on his hips and his eyebrows raised. He’s smirking though, so at least he’s not annoyed.

“No I was just leaving,” Natasha says gently. She squeezes Tony’s shoulder once more before moving out of the hallway, leaving Tony with Cap. The two men just remain quiet when she’s gone, Tony instead looking back out of the window and letting out a sigh.

“Never get in a relationship, Rogers,” Tony then says in an attempt to be funny. “It’s only doomed to end eventually.”

Steve is quiet when he steps forward. His arms are resting behind his back, and now he, too, is looking at the rain falling down on the landscape in front of them. There are a few people outside trying to run back in with their jackets high over their head. Tony wonders if he could excuse himself from going home with this weather, but Pepper wouldn’t buy that.

“It’s that time, then?” Steve asks. Tony just nods, glad that he’s not beating around the bush. He’s told Cap multiple times about his fear of Pepper leaving him, though it had mostly been jokingly. Still, Steve knows when Tony’s being serious and when not; they’ve spent enough time together right now to understand each other on that matter.

“I don’t really want to go home,” Tony answers in return. He can feel Steve suddenly looking at him, and wonders why he’s so quiet all of the sudden. But then, the bump against his shoulder surprises him.

“Come on, I could use a sparring-partner right now, and it seems like you’re not busy.”

And so the two of them went back to the gym, and they sparred for almost two hours. After that, Tony returned home, ready to face it after a long conversation with the Captain about taking responsibility for his actions.

And after Pepper broke his heart like he suspected, and then took the first plane back to Malibu (because she’d already packed her things while he was gone), Tony just sat there, thinking back of the way she kissed his forehead before she left; a clear sign that she still loves him as much as he loves her, but that the love is just not strong enough.

Her last words ring through his head, again and again. But he can’t think too much about it. And then he cries, for the first time in years.





Peter hates being the delivery-boy.

It doesn’t happen often that one of the assigned deliverers fall sick, and they often have replacement for it, but when two of them fall sick at the same time, it looks like the boss has to compromise a bit and send out one of the waiters instead.

And that’s how Peter finds himself being the deliverer of two pizza’s to a house that left the specific instruction that he might be away for long. Of course, his boss didn’t take it seriously, at all, instead sending him on his way and not paying much more attention to him after that. What Peter finds odd is that the person on the phone apparently specifically asked for him, which can only mean one thing.

It’s the annoying stalking guy.

There’s no other explanation! The dude wasn’t there when Peter came in from work, and the girl that actually had to take the man’s order passed along to Peter that the dude’s crazy. Still, Peter’s hungry, and he figures that he might as well just bring a pizza along to eat after this delivery. His shift has almost ended anyway, and he can just park the damn Vespa when he returns home, because it’s about time that he learns what this guy’s deal with him really is so it’s possible that it’s indeed going to take a while..

Peter frowns a little bit at the apartment he finds himself at. The wallpaper of the hallway is faded and shredded in so many places that there’s in fact more bare stone on the wall instead of the actual pattern. He wonders if the door would fall out if he would knock on it, but then decides that he doesn’t really care; if it’s stalker-guy’s apartment, he would gladly see it fall down on the ground.

He’s not all that surprised when he sees the man opening up the door with the biggest but ugliest smile ever. “Parker and pizza, best combination ever!” the guy almost sings, practically dragging Peter inside. Peter tries not to look too panicked, instead standing his ground and taking a deep breath to remain calm. After spotting a small table to his right, Peter walks up to there to drop the boxes, then turning back around towards Creepy Stalker Guy.

“Yeah, okay, heard you were going to kidnap me so I brought along extra pizza. That way I’ll have something to eat while a complete stranger starts to probe me,” Peter calls out, praising his own sarcasm once again. Creepy Stalking Guy puts a hand on his face and makes a fake expression that should come over as insulted, but Peter doesn’t buy it, instead turning around to take a look at the apartment.

And there he spots the same girl the guy has been with, with only one difference; her hair. Somehow, it looks like somebody has just tossed over some paint over it and forgot a few of the blue spots, but he has to admit that it doesn’t look quite bad. He himself doesn’t really have a thing for brightly colored hair, though.

“You like it?” the girl says, and it’s the first thing Peter’s ever heard her saying. Now he doesn’t know what he expected her voice to be like; serene and soft, strong and loud… In any way, it’s everything except for this hoarse voice that sounds like a teenager that just came back from a rock-concert where she sung her lungs out. Maybe she’s a smoker?

“It’s artsy,” Peter explains, not finding the right word for it. The girl – Damn Peter might as well start learning their names, right? – just grins and takes out her pizza box. The way she sets herself down in the couch makes it clear that this is her own house, so Creepy Stalker Guy is probably the guest nobody ever invites but keeps on coming anyway.

“Hey Petey, think fast!” suddenly comes from behind him, and Peter feels a shudder going through him. The Spider-sense, warning him for upcoming danger. Crap!

When he turns around he already finds about two plates flying up his way.

“What the-!” Peter calls out, but then a burst of wind blows in his face, and the plates fly past above him and smash against the wall. Peter still jumps back, hands at the ready for if he needs to defend himself. He hears something cracking a bit further away, but he doesn’t pay attention, instead listening to his spider-sense and knowing that he needs to jump before the first gunshot is made. He sees the bullet come down on the ground, but he himself is no longer standing on the floor. It’s more out of reflex than anything else, and he knows he should get down immediately, but still he’s sticking onto the wall. From here he can see that the girl is doing what seems like telekinetic to lift up the tiles of the floor and using them as shield. So, she’s one of them, then. Great to know.

“Hey!” the guy calls out when the girl lifts up another arm and ice suddenly appears all around him. So, what, ice powers as well? Who is this girl, even? Well, whatever the girl is doing, it seems to be draining every bit of energy from her. After making sure that the guy is stuck, she lowers her arms, drops the tiles, and sits down on her bed with a long and exhausted sigh. Peter pushes himself from the wall now that the danger is gone, but the girl has already seen him hanging there.

He wonders if he should call the police?

“What the hell is going on?!” the girl shouts in anger.

“Well, he’s Spider-Man, of course!” Creepy Stalking Guy says, and then the alarms start ringing inside of Peter’s head. How does this guy even know that? Peter feels as if he should start denying it, make up excuses as to why exactly it looked like he was hanging from the wall, but nothing escapes his mouth. His whole body is frozen.

This isn’t supposed to happen; Harry knows, Wanda knows, and if these two people now know as well, he’s truly the worst at keeping secrets, which is weird since it’s been working for years already. Why now, all of the sudden, does everybody find out?

“So, what? You just decide to throw my plates and start shooting at my floor to prove that this guy can swing from one building to another? There are other ways to do that, Wade!” the girl shouts back. And with that, Peter knows Creepy Stalking Guy’s name, at last.

“I just want to know how you figured it out?” Peter asks in confusion one he found his voice again. This had not been his plan at all; he should have just delivered the pizza and get out of there. It’s already past ten and he wants nothing more than to get back home and go to sleep. It’s already going to be a difficult weekend for him; he’s not sure if he can really handle this, too.

“I just know things; how’s MJ, by the way?” Wade asks, looking as if he’s not freezing to death in that ice-trap the girl made for him. Peter frowns upon hearing that new name. When he looks at the girl to ask if that’s her name, she just shakes her head in denial.

“Who’s MJ?” Peter asks.

“Oh, you haven’t met her yet?” Wade asks. Then he’s finally trying to move from his ice cold prison, but obviously isn’t able to move. “Come on, I want pizza. Yaël, get me out of here!”

But the girl – Yaël – just ignores him, instead getting up to get her own box. When she sits down on the couch, she gestures for Peter to follow her, which he does with his own dinner with him.

“Ah come on! I’m hungry!” Wade whines. They both just ignore him, instead eating in silence (as much as that’s possible), and only letting him out once they’ve finished.

Peter wonders why he isn’t just going home. He doesn’t know those people, and even finds himself disliking this Wade-person that has been stalking him at work for months before now. Sure, Yaël seems friendly enough, and Peter’s sure that she might one day be a great hero, but it takes only a short conversation with her to know that she’s a bit gloomy.

There’s a sadness in her eyes that Peter can’t place, and for a moment, he wonders if he should just ask her about it, but instead remaining quiet. He leans back on the couch then, in his mind already making up that he’s going home when the clock get to eleven, which is only about fifteen minutes more.

“There’s something on your mind,” Yaël asks after a little while of Wade rambling on. Peter hadn’t been listening, but mostly just feels their eyes on him. Peter twitches a bit in his seat, hating the attention. He’s never had so many people listening to him at the exact same time, which is actually kind of pathetic since there are only two of them right here – and one of them is a nutjob.

“I-I just don’t know you guys. Nobody’s even supposed to know, but yet here we are, Wanda knows, you know. I wonder who else does?” Peter explains.

“There’s that old guy in the restaurant, with his moustache!” Wade says pointlessly. Peter doesn’t bother to explain that he didn’t need an answer to that question.

“You know, they sent this idiot to me because they figured I need friends?” Yaël says. Peter looks up again and sees her pointing at Wade with her thumb. The guy pretends to be offended, but nobody listens to him.

“Who are ‘they’?” Peter asks in wonder.

“Two men, they introduced themselves as Professor X and Nick Fury,” Yaël explains, as if that’s the most boring thing in the world. Instead, Peter’s mouth falls open in surprise upon hearing those names.

“No way! You know Nick Fury and Professor X?” Peter asks, unable to keep his voice down. “Everybody’s heard of them, Nick Fury is like the most secretive guy in the world – we even thought him dead for long until he showed himself again during that Ultron-disaster! But Professor X! Man, what’s it like, having him in your head?”

His mouth can’t stop talking, and he wishes somebody would just stop his words. Yaël looks a bit overwhelmed with that. Still, she just shrugs after it, obviously not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

“He stays out of my head. Claims that I should figure everything out on my own,” she explains. Peter lifts up an eyebrow. Wade clarifies.

“Her brain’s scrambled and she don’t remember a thing,” he explains. Peter then nods in understanding. Sadly, that is one problem he can’t really help with. Then he decides to just… show her that he’s got issues, too, to show her that she’s not alone.

“I just figured out my dad wasn’t really my dad, and there’s a slight possibility that my real dad is still alive, and now I’m waiting for the DNA results,” Peter finds himself saying before he can really think of it.

“Wow, but if he’s your dad, that’s kind of great, right?” Yaël asks, but Peter finds himself shrugging. Sure, it could be nice, but still, there’s something biting inside of him about it.

“I’m not sure I want to know the answer to it,” Peter then answers to that. He then finally stands up, getting ready to leave.

“Well, if you want a daddy so badly, you can call me ‘dad’. Daddy Deadpool, wouldn’t that be great?” Peter can see Yaël slap her hand on her forehead, and Peter just frowns at him, wondering what kind of sick bastard this guy actually is. But then, something else he said come to mind.

“Deadpool?!” Peter finds himself shouting. A loud moan escapes his mouth and he throws his head back, taking a few steps to the other side. “Out of all the people that have to stalk me, it has to be the one who would be able to send me to an early grave.”

“Hey! I take that as an insult!” Wade shouts back. Peter just ignores him, figuring it’s time for him to go. He’s sure he’ll see these people again, though he’d rather not have another conversation with freaking Deadpool for crying out loud. He’s heard from the other Avengers that they’ve often come close to shooting him down on the spot, and he can understand why, too.

It takes five more minutes of talking about superhero-names before Peter finally takes his leave, and after that he takes the little Vespa to return back to the pizzeria. The place is already closed, but he knows where to park the thing so it’s not that much of an issue. Though, he’s sure Aunt May wouldn’t like the fact that he hadn’t told her where he’d been.

Once he gets to bed, he bitterly finds out that Wade figured out his number, and deletes his messages that contain nothing more than little heart-emoji’s.





Peter feels sick once Sunday arrives. It’s almost like he’s ready to just throw up on the spot, and nothing really gets done. Aunt May even comes up to his room to take his temperature, but finds that nothing’s really wrong with him. It’s all just in his head because today is the freaking day.

Dr. Cho is probably waiting for him; it’s already noon and Peter is still lying in bed with his covers thrown closely to him. He’d rather just stay in bed right now, but there’s no point in postponing it, right? The answer will stay the same, whether he’ll figure them out today or next week.

Eventually he stands up, pulling out random clothes from his closet that probably don’t even fit, and then replacing his jacket with his favorite hoodie instead. The thing is close to falling apart, of course, with more holes than anything else, but it’s always been something he wore whenever he felt particularly bad. Today is one of those days, obviously.

He wonders how he’s going to get there, though. He can’t just walk in there as Peter Parker, now, can he? But going in as Spider-Man would mean that he’d have to walk through the forest after the buildings stop. Maybe he can just get dressed on his way after he gets out of the taxi?

No, surely there’s a lot of security around there; they’d catch him on the act, and his secret will be once again blown.

So he decides to put on his suit, and swings all the way to the end of the city. From there on, it’s by foot. It would have been his luck if Iron Man would have been flying by, but sadly, the guy hasn’t really been seen for the past week. The very few times the Avengers were called together, Iron Man hadn’t been with them.

By the time he gets there, he’s welcomed by Wanda and Vision, the former smiling at him. He’s never really seen Vision smile, though, and wonders if he’s even able to.

“Welcome back, Spider-Man,” Wanda greets him with a small kiss on his cheek. He notices how Vision stares at the act in confusion.

“How did you know I was here?” Peter asks. It’s Vision who answers, though.

“We saw you approach because of the cameras in the trees. Wanda wanted to greet you personally when you arrived,” the… robot (?) says. Wanda only smiles a little bit, and then pulls on his arm to cross hers with his, doing the same thing with Vision.

“I know how you got lost last time, so I figured I could just bring you there, instead,” she says, but the look in her eyes make clear that she means a bit more with that. She’s here to offer him support, he figures. She knows he’s having a hard time – probably because she read his mind before knowing it was him – and figured it out.

In silence they walk through the hallways, though Vision leaves them halfway with the message that he has an appointment with the Captain. Still, after his departure Wanda doesn’t speak. When they get in the hallway with the bedrooms, Peter actually makes a sound; a surprised gasp.

“Mr. Stark’s here?” Peter asks a little louder than he’d expected. His eyes are resting on the familiar figure standing in the hallway and currently talking to Cap. He’s a bit too far away to see it clearly, but he looks extremely tired. His hair’s messy, and the clothes he’s wearing look like he’s been sleeping in them.

“He’s been living here all week,” Wanda explains, but obviously leaving out a few details. She probably figures it’s not her place to talk about this. Instead, she pulls him along the moment Cap starts to walk away, probably on his way to meet Vision. Peter’s eyes still make brief contact with Mr. Stark’s when the man looks up, and a strange feeling passes through him after that.

What if that guy is actually his father?

The way to Dr. Cho’s office seems shorter this time. In just a matter of seconds – or at least that’s what it feels like to him – he’s standing outside her door. Wanda lets go of his arm, squeezes his shoulder shortly, and then takes a step back while nodding towards the office.

“Don’t hesitate, just face it,” she tells him. At least it’s better advice than ‘It’ll be alright, things will be fine blablabla’. Peter nods at her thankfully while knocking on the door. After a short moment of silence, he hears her voice inviting him in. Peter takes a deep breath, and then silently counts to ten to calm his own nerves. After that, he gets inside.

“Ah, I was waiting for you!” Dr. Cho says the moment he gets in. He can barely close the door behind him before she’s already on her feet and walking towards the counter, where a big envelope is lying ready for him. There’s no name written on it – unsurprisingly. “I only got the results in this morning, these tests are always tricky, but with the latest Stark-tech at least it doesn’t take a whole month.”

She doesn’t really look at him as she takes out a few papers from the envelope. Peter wonders why she’s stalling this; wouldn’t she know the answers right now? Does she really need to go through these with him?

She seems to catch his nerves somehow, because her eyes rest on him for one short moment and then she drops the papers away and gives him a long apologizing look.

“I’m sorry, I got carried away. You probably don’t want me to go over all of this, do you?” she asks. Peter takes another breath and then shakes his head.

“I don’t think I would really remember anything other than ‘yes, he’s your father’, or ‘No, he’s not your father’,” Peter tries to joke. Dr. Cho does offer him a smile after that, and she sits down, motioning for Peter to do the same.

“Are you sure you want to know the answer to this?” she then asks, suddenly completely serious. Peter just shrugs, realizing that she’s giving him the option to escape the answer. But even though he’s sure he doesn’t want to know, he knows he needs to know, just so he can settle his heart a little bit.

If he has a parent that’s still alive, he has to know about it.

“Yes, I do,” Peter then says in confirmation. Dr. Cho then nods and leans back in her seat.

“The test came positive, he is your father,” she says, not beating around the bush for it. Peter feels the air escaping from his lungs.

So it’s true…

He is Tony Stark’s son.

Holy crap.

“Spidey, breathe, or else I’ll have to take that mask off,” Dr. Cho says all of the sudden, and Peter realizes his mind has drifted away. His chest is hurting, and that’s when he finds out that he’s actually stopped breathing. That’s probably why Dr. Cho is suddenly giving him instructions, right?

“I- I’m okay,” Peter tells her, finally taking a few more breaths, but feeling as if there’s barely any air getting through. Maybe he should take the mask off? He designed it to make it easily breathable, but right now he feels like it’s choking him on the spot.

Dr. Cho doesn’t say anything else, instead just patting his back a little bit while he tries to control his breath. It takes about a minute before he’s back to normal, but even then he still feels like his head is spinning.

“Listen, it’s normal that you feel panic right now,” Dr. Cho says after a long moment of silence. Peter finally looks back up at her, and only then feels that there are tears in his eyes. Tears of sadness or of joy, he doesn’t know, really. “You found out you have a living parent after thinking probably for years that they both are dead? That can only lead to a bit of shock.”

Peter nods in agreement, finding that ‘a bit of shock’ doesn’t really seem to cut it here. Right now, he just wants to go home, and to mentally prepare himself for his interview with Mr. Stark later. His dad… interview with his dad.

Holy shit how is this life?

Maybe he should just bail today, right? Stark didn’t look all that well today, either? Maybe they’re both just not… ready for it. Maybe they won’t ever be ready for it? Maybe it’s better if Peter just keeps this to himself, right?

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