void reblogs stuff here ig

Spider-Man has been recruited by Tony at this point, but Tony doesn’t know who he is under the mask yet. He, and all the other Avengers, assume he must be a young college kid.

May’s boyfriend just keeps getting worse and worse, though. Peter is getting kicked out of the apartment at least three nights a week. Then, the guy moves in with them.

Then, during a particularly loud, angry argument, the man hits him. Hard. But because of how quickly Peter heals, no one will ever believe him if he tries to tell anyone.

Peter has had enough. He doesn’t want to live here anymore. He can’t live here anymore. So he comes up with a better solution.

“Hey, Mr. Stark,” Spider-Man calls, swinging up to where they agreed to meet when Spider-Man called him earlier. He’s laughing nervously, and if he wasn’t wearing a mask, he’d be running his fingers through his hair. He doesn’t know why his heart is pounding so hard against his chest. He has several other backup plans if this doesn’t work.

He just really wants this to work.

“Just cut to the chase, kid,” Tony says, stepping out of the suit.

“It’s just, well, I’m sort of an Avenger now, right?”

“Key words being sort of,” Tony stresses.

“And the Avengers live in your tower, right?”

“Where are you going with this?”

“Well, it’s just, I’m sort of between places at the moment,” Peter says, waving his hand around, trying to sound casual. “And I was just wondering if–”

“Sure, kid, you can have a room at the Tower,” Tony says, scoffing. “Was that all? What happened, get kicked out of the dorms or something?”

“Or something,” Peter says, letting out a strained laugh. This was way too easy. Why was this so easy?

Tony tosses him a card and tells him to use it to get into the Tower, what floor to go to, and to look for the room with a blue and red spider on the door.

“You’re kidding,” Peter scoffs. “What am I, five?”

Tony just smirks at him, then twiddles his fingers in a wave and gets back in the suit to take off. Peter just huffs, watching him fly away.

“What a dick,” he mumbles, turning the access card over in his hands, running his fingers over the edges.

He doesn’t really mean that. Tony is being super nice, letting him crash in his tower without even knowing who he really is. Except, he thinks Tony has some idea as to what his secret identity is. Otherwise he wouldn’t be so trusting, right? He wouldn’t have just given Peter a card to access Avengers Tower if he didn’t do at least the most basic of background checks, right?

Tony probably knows hes just some dumb kid. It will be fine. This is fine. His plan is going swimmingly.

He shows up in the middle of the night with his backpack and a gym bag both stuffed to the brim, still in his Spider-Man costume. He grabbed everything he needed, everything that was sentimental, and he left. He’s really doing this. He’s really running away.

He wonders if May will miss him. She probably won’t. He doesn’t think about it much longer, instead hurrying out of the elevator in the Avengers floor and looking around for the spider-themed door.

And sure enough, there is a door with a blue and red spider emblem. The room itself is pretty spartan; there’s a bed, a desk, a walk in closet, and an en suite bathroom. It’s nice. The sheets on the bed are clean, if not a bit stale-smelling. He wonders how long this room has been ready for him.

He leaves again early the next morning, but he feels safe enough to leave his things behind while he goes to school.

For several days, Peter doesn’t run into anyone as he comes and goes from the building. It’s almost like no one else even lives on this floor. He’s had time to explore the common area, the kitchen, the gym on the floor below. It’s awesome. It’s incredible. After a couple weeks, he finally feels comfortable enough to walk around with his mask. Mr. Stark must know who he is by now. He’s been living in this tower for almost a month. There’s no way he doesn’t know.

So naturally, it’s when he’s chewing on a Twizzler as he gets off from the elevator one day after school that he comes face to face with the Avengers for the first time without his mask. They’re staring at him. Half of them look confused. The other half look annoyed.

So he holds out his left hand and offers, “Twizzler?” as he gives the bag a little shake.

No one laughs. No one takes him up on his offer.

“What are you doing here?” Tony asks, moving forward. “How did you get onto this floor?”

“Uh,” Peter stammers. “You gave me a key?”

“Why would I give a 12 year old a key to my tower?”

Peter bristles, frowning before he snaps back, “Fuck you, I’m fourteen!”

That does help the situation.

After nearly getting manhandled by several different Avengers, he’s clinging to the ceiling, now staring despondently at the bag of Twizzlers spilled across the floor.

“No way,” someone huffs. “You’re not actually the spider kid?”

“Spider-Man!” Peter emphasizes, frowning.

“Did you recruit a 12 year old?” Steve asks, turning to Tony.

“Oh crap, I recruited a 12 year old,” Tony mutters to himself.

“I’m fourteen!” Peter shouts at them.

No one is listening to him, and they’re now all bickering amongst themselves over what to do with him. Still annoyed, he takes the chance to skitter away and go hide out in his room. He also starts packing up his stuff again, and he closes off all his emotions as he stuffs a pair of shoes in his gym bag. He has his Spider-Man suit back on, a jacket over it, his mask ready to pull down over his head once he’s done.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Tony’s voice sounds throughout the room as the door slams open, and Peter doesn’t bother turning towards him.

“Packing,” he huffs.

“Why?”

“I’m clearly not wanted here either, so I’ll just get out of your hair,” he snaps, zipping up his bag with probably too much aggression. At least the zipper didn’t break.

“Let’s slow down, kid,” Tony starts, trying to move towards him to take the bag.

“Thanks for letting me stay here,” Peter says, shoving him away and tossing the card back at him.

They try to stop him, but he’s already rushing towards the open window, pulling his mask down, and diving out the window to swing away.

He crashes in an abandoned building a few blocks from school for a few nights, until he’s walking down the steps after the dismissal bell rings and sees a too-fancy car being swarmed by other teenagers with their phones out, taking photos, recording videos.

“Peter Parker!” Tony’s voice calls, and he can see him getting out of the car with a smirk on his face. “I’ve been looking for you!”

“Ned, kill me,” Peter begs.

“Why does Tony Stark know your name?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Kid, hurry up!” Tony calls again. “I don’t have all day!”

“Do you think I could just walk the other direction?”

“I don’t think so, dude.”

Peter groans, throwing his head back, and then he drags his feet towards Tony.

“Mr. Stark–”

“Get in the car, kid,” Tony says, his voice pleasant. “Happy’s gonna drive us back to the tower.”

Peter feels like he’s gonna be sick as he ducks into the car and is followed by Iron Man himself. There’s really no escaping. He’s fucked.

“Twizzler?”

Peter snaps his head towards Tony, staring at the hand outstretched in front of him holding a bag of Twizzlers.

“Since you dropped yours the other day,” Tony teases him.

Peter frowns, but he snatches the whole bag and holds them close to his chest as he takes a bite.