You can trust now, Peter darling

13

Peter was curled up in a ball on the couch. He didn't want to move. He was still trying to recover from his freak out and he felt so ashamed. Tony knew and he tried to reassure Peter the best he could.

"Peter you took a really big step today. I'm so proud of you." He would say to the boy with an arm wrapped around him.

"It doesn't matter that we left early. It doesn't matter that you freaked out. What matters the most is that you actually made the decision to do it."

Peter sniffled and smiled to himself at Tony's words.

"We'll try again next week, okay?" Tony said. The boy nodded and closed his eyes as he rested his head on the man's shoulders.

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Bucky and Sam arrived back at the compound after spending a few days with Sam's family. Bucky started heading towards the elevator, causing Sam to stop walking and stare at him.

"Dude, where are you going? Free beer!" Sam said as he pointed towards the other end of the street. It was a Thursday, and on Thursday's, they get free beer at one of the bars that idolizes the Avengers. So most of them were there.

"Tony needs me for something. I'll be there soon." Bucky explained as he pressed the button to the elevator. Sam shrugged and walked off.

Bucky rode up to the main floor of the compound (floor 57) and stepped out once the doors opened again. He assumed Tony would be in his lab so he started heading there. He had no idea what Tony needed him for, but he went anyway. He just hoped he would get a proper explanation which the billionaire wasn't very good at giving.

He finally arrived at the lab and sure enough, Steve and Tony were both there, reading out of a notebook. Steve looked up at Bucky and smiled before walking over to him.

"Welcome back." Steve said as he gave the man a pat on the shoulder. "How was it?"

"It was pretty good actually. I might join them again next month." Bucky said with a smile.

"Wow Buck, I think it's great that you and Sam-" Steve began before he was cut off.

"Real cute guys, but we have more important issues at hand." Tony said as he stared at the notebook.

"You haven't even told me what the issue is." Bucky rolled his eyes as he stood beside Tony.

"We found this notebook-"

"I found the notebook." Steve interrupted. Tony finally stopped staring at it and looked at the blonde man.

"You are such a child." He muttered.

"Says you!" Steve argued.

"Guys! The issue?" Bucky said, stopping the argument.

"Right...uh, yeah, Steve found this notebook at the HYDRA base we found 2 weeks ago. It's basically a record of all the experiments they did on Peter." Tony explained as he handed the book to Bucky. He knew HYDRA was probably a sensitive subject to Bucky, but he needed information.

The man tensed slightly but opened the notebook anyway. He read the first page and his eyes widened.

"Vex?" He muttered to himself as he stared at the page. "I-It says Peter Benjamin Parker, 008, Vex." He said a little louder.

"Yeah?" Tony said, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Vex...that's um- there was this other soldier at HYDRA when I was there. They called him Vex. It's a fake name, like The Winter Soldier." Bucky explained as he sat down, eyes still glued to the black notebook.

"Vex is the name given to HYDRA's most powerful soldier. There's already been 4 before Peter, but they all died during testing. The tests for the Vex soldiers were a lot more harsh than the ones for normal super soldiers."

"Shit. How long had they been at HYDRA before they died?" Tony asked, also sitting down.

"Just under 2 years."

"But Peter was there for 4." Steve said in confusion.

Something clicked in Tony's mind. It was like all the pieces fell together. He thought it through in his head while Bucky and Steve talked to each other, trying to figure it out.

"Guys, there's something about Peter I haven't told you yet." Tony said, interrupting the both. They didn't say anything so he took that as his cue to carry on.

"So basically...Peter has...super powers?" Tony said. He looked at Steve and Bucky who were staring at him blankly. There was a pause before Steve spoke.

"He what?"

"He has super powers." Tony repeated as he nodded his head.

"That he...got from HYDRA?" Bucky asked.

"No...some stuff went down when he was 9. Got bitten by this freaky spider and got some of its abilities- look, I don't really wanna get into that right now. The point is, that's probably how he lasted 4 years. He had his powers to keep him strong and protected."

Steve and Bucky looked at each other before looking back at Tony. They both had confused and shocked expressions but they decided not to dwell on the moment. Besides, it's nothing new to them.

"Geez, okay...so I'm guessing that's why he took him in the first place. They probably found out about his powers and figured that he was a good candidate for a new Vex Soldier...wouldn't die during testing." Steve thought out loud.

"Right, so we have the reason and we have the aim. Now all we have to figure out is how they knew about Peter's powers and how they tracked him down." Tony muttered.