Learn to Fly

Chapter 6

Peter swung his way to Stark Tower. He was pumped for the internship! Mr. Stark had been letting him come into his lab and work with him for about 3 weeks now. Peter shoved his mask in his pocket as he entered the lobby, and after passing through security, entered the elevators. When he got to the lab, Peter greeted Mr. Stark.

"Peter!" Mr. Stark said, getting up from the project he was working on, "There's someone I want you to meet." Entering the common room, Mr. Stark gestured to Stephen, who got up when he heard the elevator.

"This is my husband, Stephen Stark-Strange. You may know him as Dr. Strange," Peter extended his hand for Stephen to shake.

"It's nice to meet you Dr. Stark-Strange sir! I'm Peter Parker!"

Stephen smiled warmly, and took his hand. "It's just Stephen, or if you prefer, Dr. Strange. I've heard a lot about you, Peter." Peter turned crimson.

"Only the good stuff," Tony added. This only made Peter turn more red. Both of them laughed at his behavior. "Anyways, Pete, Stephen and I were wondering..." Peter looked up at him quizzically. "...  if you would like to meet the rest of the Avengers." Stephen gave Tony a pointed look. "I'd love to Mr. Stark!" Peter exclaimed. "Lemme go change into my spider suit!" He said as he rushed out of the room.

"You know that's not what we wanted to say." Stephen glared at Tony.

"Yeah, well how do you tell your intern his boss wants to adopt him?" Tony replied. Stephen only sighed in return. A minute later, Peter reentered the common room in his spider suit. "Let's meet the Avengers!" He chirped, unaware of the conversation. Tony led them to a meeting room, but stopped outside the door.

"Not all the Avengers are here right now. Steve, Nat, and Sam are on a mission, Thor and Loki are off world, and the twins are who knows where. It'll just be Birdbrain, Bruce, Vision, Antman, and Black Panther. Possibly the Pirate."

Peter nodded, and stepped into the room. Everyone turned to look at him. Fiddling with the mask in his hand, Peter gave a shy smile to the Avengers.

"H-hi! I'm Peter-man, er, Spider-parker! Uh, you know what I mean," he said. Scott waved, T'Challa and Vision gave a polite nod, Bruce smiled, and Clint gave him an aloof expression. Probably still pouting about his lost arrows. Peter waved back, and took a seat in an empty chair. Awkward silence ensued, as Fury hadn't entered yet. Clint finally broke the silence. "So how old are you exactly, Peter?"

"16," he answered. Many of them looked impressed. Conversation carried well, as Peter found himself enjoying talking to the Avengers just like normal people. Mr. Stark even ruffled his hair once. After a good 15 minutes, Fury entered, and the room went silent. "The rest of you can leave. Spiderman, I need a word with you." Peter's expression turned momentarily to panic, but Mr. Stark gave him a reassuring look. "So, Spiderman?"

"Yes, sir," Peter replied, "What do you plan on doing if I tell you my identity? Your databases are rather easy to hack into."

"Only I have to know your identity, but I see you've elected to tell the Avengers as well."

Peter nodded. "Well then," Fury said, extending his hand and giving Peter a brief smile, "Welcome to the Avengers, Peter." Peter grinned so wide his face might crack in two.

"Thank you, Director Fury sir!" Peter said as he exited the room. Tony and Stephen were waiting for him, and were slightly worried about his crazy grin. "Spiderman is an Avenger now, Mr. Stark!" Peter had to keep himself from shouting.

"That's great!" Tony said as he clapped Peter on the shoulder.

"Peter, Tony and I were wondering..." Peter looked up at Stephen curiously, "... if you wanted to stay for movie night?" Stephen's cloak had wrapped itself around Tony to prevent him from laughing at his husband. Stephen shot Tony a glare as he composed himself, trying not to smirk. (He failed). Peter, blissfully unaware of the silent interaction between the two, nodded vigorously, before leaving to change out of his spider suit. Stephen turned to face Tony, who smirked and said, "You couldn't do it either."

Stephen muttered, "It's a lot weirder when his boss is Ironman," Tony simply laughed, then called the rest of the Avengers to the common room. All of them minus T'Challa, who had to return to Wakanda, arrived in the common room a minute later, including an overly enthusiastic Peter. After ordering pizza, they settled onto the couches.

"Friday, who's turn is it to pick the movie?" Tony asked.

Friday responded, "I believe it's Capsicle's turn, who is not present at the moment. Would you like me to choose someone at random?"

"No thanks, Fri. Okay everyone, what movie do you want to watch?"

A war had started. Scott, Peter, and Clint were chanting "Star Wars!" over and over again at the top of their lungs, Bruce and Vision wanted to watch a documentary they found about some new sciencey concept, and Stephen wanted to read. Peter was trying to convince Vision that Star Wars was a much superior movie, and Scott was trying to conduct his ants to bring a bunch of bowls of snacks into the room (It didn't work, and he ended up with a bowl on top of his head). Eventually, Tony had enough of the chaos and being tripped by ants with kitchen utensils, so he had Friday chose a person at random like she suggested. Friday chose Peter, and 15 minutes later they were all settled on the couch watching Star Wars. It was halfway through Empire Strikes Back when Tony noticed a heavy weight on his side. Peter had fallen asleep on him. When the movie had ended, most of the Avengers were asleep and Stephen asked Friday to take a picture of the scene. Tony and Peter were both asleep, with Peters head on Tony's shoulder and Tony's head resting on Stephen's arm. Gently, Stephen shook Tony's non-occupied shoulder. Tony moved and got up, which woke up Peter. After he stretched, Tony looked at his watch, and made an incomprehensible spluttering noise. Peter's internship had ended 4 hours ago! "What's wrong, Mr. Stark?" Peter yawned. "C'mon Pete, I'll drive you home. You're late getting back." Tony grabbed the keys to one of his many fancy cars. Peter's eyes widened, and he rushed to grab his backpack and follow Tony into the elevator. The car ride back to Peter's orphanage was only 10 minutes. (Come on, what cop is going to pull Tony freaking Stark over for speeding?) When they parked out front, Tony wrinkled his nose at the disgustingly old building. They would be getting an anonymous donation from him. "Do you need me to go in and tell the manager you got caught up with the internship?"

"No no, Mr. Stark, it's fine. I'm sure you want to get back to the tower," Peter said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Mr. Stark narrowed his eyes at him for a moment.

"Alright," he said finally, "I'll see you tomorrow, kid." Peter nodded and stepped out of the car. He watched as Tony drove away, before turning to face the door of the orphanage. As silent as he could, he stepped into the old hallway and shut the door as quietly as possible. He tip-toed across the wooden floor boards, and almost breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the stairs. Peter stepped onto the stair, and froze in horror as it creaked loudly, almost enough to echo down the hall. The scraping of a chair and slamming of a door told Peter he was in for it.

"You!" Shouted the orphanage keeper, Miss Binsh "What are you doing back here so late?" She advanced towards Peter, who remained silent. He learned the first day here that you only got beat more if you spoke out of turn. "Ungrateful brat. You should have learned the rules by now, given you've broken every single one of them." Peter couldn't help it! He couldn't let her beat Tom, he was only 5! And Scarlet hadn't eaten in 2 weeks, Peter had to steal that loaf of bread. And Chris would have gotten beat if Peter didn't distract her while he cleaned up the broken vase.

"Turn around," she hissed in a deathly calm voice. Peter did, trying not to show weakness. Miss Bitch- er, Binsh- liked to beat the kids on the back with a metal ruler if they got out of line. You never knew if a kid had wings, and it hurt twice as much if you did. Peter tried not to scream out, but after the 3rd hit, he did. This just resulted in a kick to the ribs. After the 7th hit, she grabbed him by the hair, and threw him towards the stairs. He didn't hesitate to crawl up them. Reaching the boy's bedroom, he crawled into the bathroom to clean the cuts. They were deeper than normal this time, and blood dripped off his feathers. Peter sighed, wiped the blood off, and changed into his spidersuit. 'I can handle this' he told himself, 'If spiderman is anything, he is not weak.'