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Being a Stark [Superfamily]

Chapter 27

The Compound isn’t the same anymore.

While Tony returns to help Rhodey with his revalidation, Peter usually arrives there, feeling like he’s somewhere he doesn’t belong. After all, Wanda’s gone. Steve’s gone. Clint’s gone. Even Yaël has freaking disappeared overnight, never letting him know anything about it other than leaving a letter saying ‘gonna see the world’, whatever that means.

For the whole summer break, time moved slowly. Mostly it had just been Peter waiting for them to return, for the team to be assembled again. Next to that, the first few days had been spent arguing with Tony on whether or not he was allowed to keep the suit. It’s safe to assume to which conclusion they’ve come eventually.

Tony agreed on Peter keeping it if he continued his training, but that possibility also disappeared as soon as they realized Natasha has gone under as well. Leaving only small messages that say she’s doing fine, there’s not much else they hear about it. Peter just sticks to training against a dummy for the few times he joins Tony at the compound.

Peter has asked Tony if it’s expected of him to sign the accords as well. All Tony did was huff and give a vague, cryptic answer.

“Stick to the little guy,” was all he said on the matter. When Peter brought it up again a little bit later, all Tony got to tell him was that he was underage, and didn’t want him to sign them until he was a legal adult. Peter decides not to go against it.

With Flash begrudgingly joining the Decathlon-team – as a sanction from his own mother after all that bullying in the past – things almost even feel weird at the school. The constant ‘fear’ of having Flash kicking his ass quickly passes over, but instead comes another growing fear, this one being Ned.

Of course, Ned is an awesome guy. He’s a good friend, he’s smart, and he loves Star Wars just as much as Peter does. But he also runs his mouth more often than not, and there have been a few times where Peter had to kick him in the legs for almost revealing to the entire school that he’s Tony Stark’s son.

Or worse… That he’s Spider-Man!

So Peter figures it’s best to just stay at his side at all times; that way he can make sure Ned doesn’t spill much more than that. That proves to be hopeless during gym, when he announces to the entire class that Peter ‘knows Spider-Man’!

Of course, that’s old news, since everybody seems to know Peter once convinced Spider-Man to come to a party. A party he doesn’t really want to think back to.

The damage is small, he only has a few of the students looking at him curiously; probably the new ones who didn’t know about Peter’s internship at SI. But the one person that does get his attention is Liz.

As he looks at her, he gets some small flashes of them dancing together. It must be from the party at Flash’, he tells himself. It’s been clear to him that the girl has been showing some… interest, but so far, Peter hasn’t really given himself the luxury of thinking about it.

Even now, he can only give her a light smile before heading out of the gym the moment the bell rings. Rolling his eyes towards Ned, he decides it’s best not to cause too much of a scene right here. It’s not like many of the students care about who he knows. He’s not that important to them.

“Hey, Peter?”

Oh, great. That’s Liz. Peter turns around to face the girl, noticing rather quickly that she’s taller than him, though only slightly. Her dark skin shines a bit from sweating, and she licks her lips the moment she joins up with him.

“Liz, hi,” Peter greets her. Liz nervously pulls her hair behind her ear and shuffles a bit on her feet.

“Hi, uh, I just- I wanted to ask- I’m having a party tonight; my parents aren’t home. Do you, maybe, want to come?”

Peter’s mouth falls open in surprise. Another party? Is that really such a good idea? He knows last party was a disaster because he couldn’t keep away from the drinks and that’s easily avoided next time, but on the other hand he’s a bit scared he’s going to make another fool of himself.

“I- uh,” he mumbles out. Then suddenly, he gets a slap on his shoulder. Turning around, he comes to face Ned, who is grinning excitedly.

“Of course he’ll be there!” Ned answers for him. Before Peter can even deny that, Liz smiles happily.

“Awesome!” Then she grabs his hand and pulls a pen, scribbling down words on his skin. With eyes focused on what she’s writing, Peter feels a whole sense of wrong going through him. He remembers last time a girl took his hand to put down her address, a little more than two years ago now.

“Uh,” he mutters out. Liz pulls away the moment she’s done, and then she hops away with another smile. Unlike last time with Gwen, the girl doesn’t nervously continue the conversation a bit. “What just happened?”

“You, my friend, are so getting yourself a girlfriend!” Ned says enthusiastically. With a mouth fallen open, Peter turns to his friend.

“Ned, I don’t want a girlfriend!” he hisses at him, heart beating fast. Why is he suddenly so nervous?

“Wh- why not? Everybody’s in love with Liz! And she likes you! Be happy, man!” Ned counters, still smirking. He punches his arm once more.

“I’m not happy! I have, literally, zero interest in getting myself a girlfriend!”

“Why not?” Ned asks, suddenly curiously. Peter sighs and then shrugs.

“I dunno, I just don’t have the time!” Peter admits. “Besides, my dad tried dating, and look what it got him!”

Ned then gives him a confused stare.

“Who- your dad? You never mentioned that?”

Peter shrugs and then shakes his head, starting to make his way back to the changing room. Right now, all he wants to do is head home and not think about this again. Aunt May is there tonight, so they can roll up a movie and just spend the evening on the couch.

“C’mon Peter, then at least be my wingman?”

Peter sighs, rolls his eyes and then does the exact opposite of what he wants to do.

He agrees.

With Tony out of the country for some Stark Industries-stuff, Peter is spared from the warning he was no doubt going to get at the mention of going to a party.

Still, he got a few words from his Aunt, who ended up driving both him and Ned – who is wearing a freaking cowboy hat! – to Liz’ house.

The party’s not too bad (aside from the introduction he was given the moment he arrived, referencing back to his embarrassing dancing stint). Flash is, once again, the DJ, and there’s lots of drunk teenagers around, but so far Peter doesn’t see anything too horrible happening. When a cup of beer is passed to him, Peter refuses just to be safe.

But the more time he spends in here, the more he wants to get out again. Just a bit of fresh air can’t be too bad, no? Still, Liz is eyeing him from everywhere she’s standing, too shy to actually talk to him. She’s often surrounded by her friends, and Peter stays close to Ned.

They come across Michelle once. She just raises an eyebrow at him, gestures that she’s watching him, and then walks off again. Peter doesn’t let her get to him.

Peter hangs on. For an hour, he bites his tongue and pretends to enjoy himself. But after that, he decides he needs a moment. Just a bit of fresh air. So he quickly tells Ned he’s going out for a little while, and then gets to the garden. Walking past a few couples that are making out, Peter hurries into a secluded spot where he, then, starts to climb up the wall.

Just some alone time. The roof can guarantee that.

Of course, that’s not taking in account the sudden blue explosion he’s seeing from a good distance away.

Casting one last look at Ned, who is standing in front of the window, looking around and seeming just out of place like Peter had been feeling, he decides this thing has a priority now. So he shrugs off his clothes, fishes out the mask from his pocket, and stretches his arms a bit.

So, he came to the party wearing his suit? He’s been hoping for a reason to get away, and some Spider-Man action is just about the right thing.

The only bad thing about Liz’ neighborhood? The lack of tall buildings. With absolutely nowhere to shoot his webs at, he finds himself stranded on the ground, meaning that his journey to the blue explosions has just become a whole lot harder.

On foot! Holy crap! He tries out all the possible short cuts, interrupts a few garden parties and almost falls into a few pools. A couple of dogs are happy to see him, others bark and growl. After a few minutes, he gets himself to a bridge where a couple of people are talking together. Peter notices the large, strange gun one of the men is holding.

“Okay, okay, okay. I got what you need here, man,” somebody says. The man holding the gun seems unlpeased, like he’s not impressed. With that, the other man, the one with the bonnet and the yellow-sleeved hoodie, picks up the gun again and hurries back to his van. “I’ve got tons of great stuff here.”

As the man starts to sum up what he’s got here, another man faces the buyer, telling him about how they’re the only ones selling these kinds of things.

Oh, this must be where the ATM-robbers got their stuff, Peter thinks to himself. It would make sense.

Thinking back of it, when he tried mentioning it to Tony last time during dinner, all the man had told him was not to get himself into that mess. Now, Peter could listen and stay away, or he could actually try and figure out what is happening here, no?

“Listen, man, I just need something to stake out somebody, alright? I’m not trying to… shoot them back in time,” the buyer says, holding his shirt nervously. The man in the van mentions something else that gets the man’s attention. Peter leans a bit closer to listen in.

That’s when Ned calls.

Now, he knows it’s Ned. Because Ned has selected his own personal ringtone on Peter’s phone. While everybody has the tone Gwen chose all that time back, Ned has his own little tune that would warn Peter immediately that it’s him. It was his idea: The guy in the chair, he had said.

Of course, the fact that his phone goes off is crap, because he was actually doing good at listening in to these guys. As a result of his sudden interruption, the sellers suddenly point their guns towards the man in the large shirt, who holds up his hands and takes a few steps back in fright.

“You set us up?” the man asks. The other man shakes his head nervously.

“Hey, hey, man!” he responds. Peter drops down from his hiding place. Nobody is going to get shot when he’s around, that’s for sure! Once he lands on the ground, he starts waving his arms.

“Hey, hey come on! You’re gonna shoot somebody shoot at me!” he shouts at them.

The man holding the gun raises an eyebrow, and looks at him, seeming unimpressed. “Alright,” he says, turning until his gun is pointed towards Peter. Then Peter shoots it out of his hands and runs towards them. The man, the buyer, runs off to safety. Good, he doesn’t need to be here.

Before Peter can near any of them, he’s suddenly punched away. A hard blow against the face sends him flying in the air until he lands on his back, painfully. Realizing that he might have been attacked by one of these weapons, Peter scrambles back up and shoots at the car until he’s attached to it.

It’s a testament to the fabric Tony has used that it’s not ripping as he slides on the ground. There’s a messy chase. He’s shot at by the same purple beam as in the bank. He’s swinging left and right, smashing against multiple trashcans and mailboxes. His nose actually hurts from the repeated blows.

It’s a small relief when the gun suddenly flies past him. It means he won’t be shot at anymore. But, distracted as he is, he lands against a stone mailbox. With it breaking from the impact, Peter can’t help but let go of his webs. He sees the car drive away, and an attempt to stick himself to the other door fails when it breaks.

So he takes another shortcut; going through more gardens, and ruining even more parties, scaring other kids and dogs. After a while, he switches to going through the roofs. He catches up to the car, makes his jump-

Only to be snatched out of the sky, instead. There’s even more struggle, and darkness prevents him from seeing what grabbed him other than two shiny green eyes. At first, his mind tells him ‘The Goblin’, but then he thinks better of it. Harry’s still at the Compound, stuck in strong therapy with all the possible doctors Tony could find on the subject.

The higher he gets, the more nervous he becomes. This is not what’s supposed to happen. Worried, he tries all he can to struggle free. His mind travels back to Harry, to the last time he’s been carried into the sky like this.

His reflexes tell him to fight. His mind tells him that he’ll fall to his death if he gets himself loose.

His suit has a mind of his own. When he gets to a certain height, a small alarm suddenly goes off, and then the breath is pulled out of his lungs and he’s ripped away from the claws that were holding him. Seeing only the green lights in a dark silhouette that remind him of a murderous vulture, Peter lets whatever’s taking him this time pull him down again.

He realizes it’s a parachute when he’s suddenly inside of it. That’s not how it’s supposed to be! He should be underneath the parachute, not inside of it! This is not going to do him much good! He shouts in panic, his hear racing too fast and his mind making him think back of last time. He can almost imagine Tony flying after him, reaching out his hand, shouting at him in panic.

Peter can’t see a thing. The parachute completely surrounding him, he continues with his fall until there’s a hard blow on his back. There’s tears forming in his eyes, and suddenly water is coming from everywhere. The suit is a lot of things, but not waterproof. For rain maybe, yeah, but not for being dropped into a damn lake!

He struggles, fights to be freed, but the chute sticks to him like it’s afraid to let go. Realizing he needs to think now or he’ll never think again, Peter tries freeing himself a bit slower. Maybe being fast isn’t helping at all.

But no, no matter what he does, the chute doesn’t let go. He wants to scream, but who is going to hear him?

Is this what Dad warned him about? When he said not to go after these guys? Did he know something like this would happen? Is he disappointed him now?

Peter closes his eyes. There’s nothing left for him to do; he’s going to drown here, and that’s how it’s going to happen. He’s been a fool, way over his head…

When Peter suddenly feels like he can breathe again, he opens his eyes. He can’t feel the wind going over him, but he can catch a glimpse of the water underneath him. He’s flying above it, fast. There are hands holding him underneath his armpits. Peter coughs out some water, and then tries to look up.

He recognizes the blue glow of the Arc Reactor everywhere.

“Oh, uh… hey,” he mutters out. Tony doesn’t answer. Instead, he flies them towards a playground where he drops Peter on top of the Monkey Bars. There, he hovers into the air while Peter pulls off his mask, finally feeling like he can breathe again, completely.

“What happened?” Tony asks, voice sounding metallic as always through the helmet.

And so Peter starts explaining; about the party. The explosion he saw, the weapons and how they were obviously connected to the ATM-guys. Squeezing out his mask, he barely gets through his words. Shivering a bit from the cold – hey, the suit might be resistant to temperature, but he’s wet, and it’s cold – he stumbles through the story.

“And then he just- he just, like, swooped out like a monster and picked me up and I- he- he- flew me up to like a thousand feet and just dropped me!” Peter finishes the story. “How’d you find me? Did you put a tracker in my suit or something?”

Tony, still in his suit, keeps on hovering in the air without removing his mask.

“Uh, I put everything in your suit,” Tony says, shrugging shortly. “Including this heater.”

Immediately, a warmth passes over Peter, originating from the suit. Though shuddering through the cold, Peter feels an immediate relief now that he’s no longer freezing.

“Whoa, that’s better, thanks!” Peter calls out, looking down at his gloved hands.

“What were you thinking?” Tony then asks.

“The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons! I gotta take him down!” Peter defends himself.

“Take him down now, huh? Steady, crocket, there are people that’ll handle this sort of thing,” Tony says, suddenly looking to the side and holding up a hand as if he’s gesturing something to somebody. Peter frowns a bit.

“Who? You can’t mean the Avengers, right?”

“No, no, no, that’s a little below their paygrade,” Tony counters. Peter glares at him. They both know there’s no Avengers to speak of. Come to think of it…

“Uh, Dad, how are you even here? I thought you were in India?” Peter asks in confusion. He can clearly remember Tony leaving only yesterday. He can’t just have flown back to fish Peter out of the water.

“Oh, I’m not… here,” Tony says, finally raising the helmet and revealing an empty Iron Man suit. Peter then rolls his eyes and sighs as he leans back. “Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you would be toast right now. Thank Ganesh while you’re at it.”

The suit makes a movement as if Tony’s accepting a drink somewhere. Oh crap, Peter really doesn’t like it when Tony drinks, even though it’s just something small. He doesn’t want Tony to fall back to his bad habits.

“Look, forget the flying vulture guy, please,” Tony then begs of him.

“Why?” Peter complains.

“Why? Because I said so!” Tony shouts in return, sounding incredibly annoyed. Well, that’s pretty much how Peter is feeling right now. Then, somewhere in the background, he can hear Tony talk to somebody else. “Sorry, I’m talking to my teenage son.”

The suit makes a movement as if he’s waving the person off.

“Stay close to the ground! Build up your game, helping the little people. Like that lady that bought you the churro.” Then the invisible glass is lifted up to the mask shortly before it's put away again. “Ugh, that stuff is disgusting. Can’t you just be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?”

“But, Dad, I’m ready for more than that now!” Peter complains. Because it’s true; he can do so much more. Especially now with the suit! Give him another Electro, or Lizard! He can take them all down!

Tony closes the helmet then. “No, you’re not.”

“That’s not what you thought when you asked me to take on Steve,” Peter throws at him, but regrets it immediately. He can see the change in stance on the suit almost instantly. Tony doesn’t respond immediately, leaning forward a bit while his free hand goes to his chest. Peter knows what that means; he’s rubbing his scar again.

After a long breath, Tony talks on.

“Listen, Pete, if you come across these weapons again, just call Happy,” Tony then asks him, voice cracking a little bit. He’s trying to hide his emotions, again.

“C’mon, you know Happy doesn’t like me,” Peter complains. “Do you really think he’ll listen?”

“Happy likes you, he just has a funny way of showing it.”

Through the speakers, Peter can hear a car engine roaring up.

“Are you driving?” he asks, frowning still.

“You know, when I get home we can go and take a look at college possibilities. What do you think? I can arrange something at MIT.”

“Dad, I don’t- “

“Listen, son, I need to go now. I’ll be home soon and we’ll talk about it, good?”

“Dad!”

But the suit turns around.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark is no longer connected,” FRIDAY’s familiar voice says. Peter reaches out for her before she can fly off.

“FRI, can you just- is he alright? To drive, I mean?”

FRIDAY stays quiet for a bit, hovering above the ground for a moment.

“Mr. Stark’s parameters are in order, though he’s driving at a speed that’s much higher than the allowed limit,” she tells him. “Goodbye, Peter.”

Then, FRIDAY flies off at last, leaving Peter on the playground with a wet suit and no possible way to get home other than walking. Peter sighs, and then starts on his journey back.

That’s when he finds a part of the strange gun that fell out of the car during the chase. He kneels down to observe it a bit, finding a purple glow coming out of it. That’s probably the power source, Peter’s mind tells him. Before he can pick it up, Ned’s ringtone comes up again. Peter picks up immediately this time.

“Hey, man, I was on my way back,” Peter assures him. It can only be for that reason that he’s calling, right? To ask where Peter is?

“Actually, I was calling to say maybe you shouldn’t come,” Ned warns him. Peter frowns underneath his mask. “Listen to this.”

And in the background, Peter can hear Flash riling everybody up with his usual Penis Parker comedy.

“Sorry, Peter. I guess we’re still losers,” Ned then comes back, sounding actually apologetic about it. Peter shakes his head, letting out a sigh. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow, bud,” Peter answers, and then he hangs up. He’s got other things to worry about than Flash, after all. And as he picks up the piece of the gun, his Dad’s voice rings through his mind one time.

If you come across these weapons again, just call Happy.

Huh, as if. Just because Peter is Tony Stark’s kid doesn’t mean that the chauffeur seems to overly like him. When Peter talks to him, Happy just gives him this stare that clearly says ‘I don’t care’. It could be Peter’s imagination, but just as much as he likes Happy, he knows he’s not the man’s favorite person.

A funny way of showing, Tony said. As if.

So he starts walking back, first to Liz’ house to pick up his stuff on the roof. Then back home, to take a closer look at the purple glowing thing.

He can take care of this, himself. He can prove it.

He’ll make his Dad proud.





Tinkering at school and then coming across one of the criminals from yesterday, Peter dares to say that his school day was everything but dull. He and Ned come to the agreement to meet up after school, but before Peter heads back home, he needs to make a quick stop at the Compound.

He knows, he doesn’t like the emptiness in there, but he’s been avoiding the place, and thus Vision, for such a long time now, and he’s already feeling like a crappy friend again. So after telling Happy to get him to the Compound first, Peter ends up finding himself in the place where all the Avengers used to live together.

Remembering how everybody would be training outside when Peter arrived, Peter now feels something hollow coming across an empty field. There’s no Natasha to greet him. No Steve to slap him on his back and laugh at his stupid jokes. There’s no Clint, whose humor is even worse than Peter’s.

He’s all alone, he quickly realizes.

“Hey, FRIDAY, is Vision here today?” Peter asks, knowing that FRIDAY is still linked up here.

“I’m sorry, the Vision just left to join Sergeant Rhodes at his doctor's appointment,” FRIDAY tells him, apologetic. Peter sighs. So he made the journey for nothing. Ah, well, since there’s nobody here other than the doctors, Peter figures he might as well take another look at how Harry’s doing.

Seeing that Tony doesn’t want Peter near the boy, Steve had given him an alternative way on catching up. Knowing that he’s, for now, not allowed at the secluded ward, Peter hurries back to Steve’s office.

It looks almost exactly the same as when he left it; the daylight shines through the windows, making the room bright even on a rainy day. Only during the evening did Steve ever turn on the lights. The desk is clean, neat. Steve always liked to keep it that way, being pretty much the exact opposite of Tony on that front. When Peter sits down on the black desk chair, he comes across the transparent computer screen. He knows how to turn it on, so he leans forward to do so.

And that’s when Peter realizes there is something different.

With a frown, he leans towards opened the FedEx-package, giving it a quick look and seeing that it’s addressed to Tony – taking aside the fact that Steve managed to make his ‘r’ look like an ‘n’ in his haste of writing. There’s an old, black phone inside of it, along with a letter with Tony’s name is written on. Peter frowns. Why is this here?

He picks up the letter and opens it up. He doesn’t care if he’s not supposed to read it. If this is in Steve’s office, it has to be from him, right? Quickly, he starts.

“Tony, I don’t know where to begin with this letter; there’s so much I want to tell you. Let me start with how glad I am that you have Peter now. I don’t like the idea of you rattling around in the tower by yourself. We all need family. Peter is yours.

I’ve been on my own since I was 18. I never really fit in anywhere, even in the army. My faith’s in people, I guess. Individuals. And I’m happy to say that, for the most part, they haven’t let me down. Which is why I can’t let them down, either. Locks can be replaced, but maybe they shouldn’t.

I know I hurt you, Tony. I guess I thought by not telling you about your parents yet, I was sparing you. I can see now that I was really sparing myself. And I’m sorry. Sorry for hurting you, sorry for not talking to you. I need you to know that I meant it, every time, when I told you that I love you. Because I still do, please never forget that.

I wish we agreed on the Accords, I really do. I’m sad that they got to stand between us; it’s such a stupid concept, now that I think of it. I know you’re doing what you believe in, and that’s all any of us can do. That’s all any of us should.

So, no matter what, I promise you. If you need us, if you need me, if Peter needs me, I’ll be there.

With love, Steve.”

Peter lets out a shaky sigh, realizing that there’s a tear rolling from his eye. When did Steve even send this? Peter turns the letter around, trying to find anything else written. All he can find is a series of numbers. It looks like… a PIN?

Peter takes the flip-phone out of the package, looking it over. He’s never worked with this kind of thing before, but he remembers Aunt May having one once. Trying out a few buttons, he manages to turn on the screen eventually.

Putting down the PIN as written on the letter, his feeling of relief is endless when it’s accepted. Peter messes a bit with it, trying to find how it works. But eventually, he stumbles across the contacts on it.

There’s only one number. And Peter knows who that is.

He doesn’t think; all he does is pressing the number, and then quickly putting his thumb on the green button. When he puts the device against his ear, he breathes out heavily when he hears the line going over.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

“Hello?”

Peter draws out another shaky breath. Because that’s Steve. Steve. The man he hasn’t spoken to for the past two months. The man he’s been missing all this time. The second father he’s found himself without even searching for it.

“Tony? Why did you call? Is there something wrong?”

Peter shakes his head, but Steve can’t see it.

“I- uh, it’s Peter,” he then says. Doesn’t need to keep Steve in this tension. There’s a short silence, and then some shuffling sounds.

“Peter, how- uh, how did you get this number?” Steve asks, curiously.

“I was, uh, I found it in your office. Tony left it here. I was going to check up on Harry and-“ he stops talking. His heart is beating like crazy, because he’s talking to Steve! Holy crap! “Ho-how’re you- how have you been? Where are you?”

“I can’t tell you that, Peter. I’m sorry. I’m fine, though, we all are,” Steve tells him sadly. Peter sighs but nods. Of course, he should have guessed that. “How are you? How is Tony? He hasn’t called.”

“Yeah, he, uh… He’s not doing too well, though he’s trying not to show it,” Peter admits. “He’s in India somewhere, now. I don’t know where, though.”

“I know. He’s there on business for the accords. They’re trying to change them, since they’ve obviously failed,” Steve explains. Peter likes that about him; he never holds back on that kind of information. “We’ve got somebody there, as well. They’re working on getting us all together to talk it through, but there’s still much to do.”

“Let me guess, Tony doesn’t want to talk to you?” Peter asks. Steve then snorts.

“You know him,” Steve responds. “He’s been talking with Natasha, and Sam, too. But the others, not really.”

Peter nods, leaning back a bit in his chair.

“So, uh, how is school going?”

Peter smirks a bit and then puts his feet on the desk, only remembering afterwards that Steve wouldn’t like that. But Steve isn’t here, so there’s nobody here that is going to punish him for it.

“School’s fine. Ned and I are still losers, but we’re okay with it. At least I am. It’s not like I’m going to see any of them again after I graduate,” Peter admits.

“And no girl that has caught your attention?” Steve then asks teasingly. “Or boy, I don’t mean to assume.”

“No, no, there’s no girl. OR boy, for that matter. I’m not really… searching for a girlfriend, either,” Peter admits. And it’s the truth, he’s everything but looking for a relationship. Even if Liz is searching for one with him… Will he be able to avoid her, after failing to attend her party so miserably? Maybe she’ll be angry at him? Who knows.

“And you don’t have to, Peter,” Steve says, though he sounds like he’s laughing a bit. Peter doesn’t know, he can’t see him from here. “I need to go now, son. I promise, I’ll do my best to come home soon. It depends on your Dad, of course.”

“It’s alright, I’ll get some sense into him,” Peter jokes. He doesn’t really want Steve to hang up, but it’s inevitable now. If Steve needs to go, he needs to go.

But… if Tony keeps the phone here, packed in this box… that would mean that he’s not using it, right? He wouldn’t even notice if Peter keeps the phone, then?

“I’ll, uh, I’ll keep the phone with me? Dad keeps it in the box all the time, so I don’t think he’ll notice it’s gone.”

“Alright, but be careful. And don’t forget the charger, it should be somewhere in the box.” Peter tips the box over completely, and indeed a cable on an adaptor falls out of it.

“Alright. Talk to you later, Steve.”

“Bye, son.”

The Steve hangs up, and Peter sighs. He supposes he should be doing what he was supposed to do here. He starts up the computer, watching Harry’s progress, but with Steve still on his mind.

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