The New Boy One Door Down

25

Tony Stark's POV

I smiled to myself as I watched Peter run off into the facility. His backpack hung off his shoulder as he stumbled over his own feet.

"Do you really think he likes Harley of all people?" Happy asked as he watched Peter as well.

"I don't see why not, but I'm going to find out for sure." I said as I walked closer to the facility. "Are you coming or are you just going to stand back there all day?" I called out to Happy, who joined me moments later.

"Where are going?" He asked.

"To the lab so we can invade Peter's privacy. You still in?"

"Of course I'm still in, I just wanted to know where we were going first."

We walk in silence as we pass the endless turns and hallways of the facility.

I couldn't help but let my eyes linger on the memorial to Nat as we walked past it. Happy stared at it for a minute as well.

"You still miss her, don't you?" He asked.

"I miss all of them. That's never going to change. I miss the way things use to be. Cap's over a hundred years old, Nat's on some stupid planet, Clint retired, Bruce decided to retire and just be a scientist for Stark Lab, I'm not even sure where Thor is.

"We're never going to be the original six anymore, and I'll always miss that." I answered as I keep walking. My long drawn out answer left Happy in silence but that's not always a bad thing.

The lab was of course locked from the outside but as soon as I put my hand on the door handle Jarvis unlocked the door and turned all of the lights and machines on.

"Welcome back Mr. Stark. Good evening Mr. Hogan." Jarvis called from above my head.

"Hello Jarvis."

"Hey J, pull up Peter's baby monitor protocol for me."

"Of course sir."

The first thing that popped up was Peter wearing his mask in front of a mirror with a meat beater in one hand.

"It is I, Thor son of Odin." He said with a terrible asguardian accent. He looked back in the mirror while flexing his other arm.

"J, what is this?" I asked. Jarvis paused the clip before answering.

"I believe that's Mr. Parker doing a Thor impression." I sighed as I looked at the scene on front of me.

"If that's not you, I don't know what is." Happy whispered slightly. My head snapped over to him.

"I have never done that in my life."

"Really? You've never impersonated Cap or Sam? Not even once for a joke?"

"No, I haven't."

"Actually sir, I could pull up security feed from the night Ultron came to life of you doing it if you'd like."

"Jarvis, don't. Delete that footage, it didn't happen." I said quickly. Happy stood smirking beside me. "Shut up." I mumbled before turning back to Peter.

"Just, go to the night he met Harley."

Peter Parker's POV

I raced back to my room as fast as I could to get away from Mr. Stark. My face was still very red, my heart raced, and my hands were sweaty but when I got to my hallway I began to calm down.

As I walked closer to my room I could hear Harley blasting music from the other room. I hadn't heard the song before but it sounded pretty good.

I opened my door and flung my backpack in the floor with plans to face plant on the bed and die of embarrassment but before I could fall on the bed, a package caught my attention.

The package didn't give me an uneasy feeling so I assumed it was safe to open. Of course I poked it wit a pencil a few times just to make sure it didn't more anything.

I picked it up carefully before ripping into it.

It was a simple CD that had 'from Harley, enjoy' written on the front.

Without thinking I popped the CD into my laptop and clicked play. Uncle Ben's face appeared on the screen a moment late Followed by another picture, and another, and another. A sappy song was being played over the pictures but I wasn't focused on that.

He looked so happy in the pictures. Some had Ned and I in them, others were of him and May, but they were mainly if him.

I studied his face. The way his eyes lit up when he saw May and how his smile never faded over time.

People always said I looked more like Ben than I did my actual dad. I could never decide since most of the memories I had of Ben were from when I was younger and a bit fuzzy, but now that I see him like this, I agree.

I smiled the biggest smile I've had in a long time as I watched a short home video that May took of Ben chasing me around the room. I had a green blanket tied around my neck and wasn't wearing a shirt. Ben and a newspaper hat on as he chased me with a paper towel roll that we pretended was a sword.

I felt tears build up in my eyes as the scene changed one last time.

It was a video of uncle Ben in a room by himself. The camera was on the desk in front of him as he stared into it, and for a moment I let myself believe that he was still alive and talking to me face to face rather than him talking to a camera.

"Hey Peter, I made your aunt promise that she wouldn't show you this until she thought you needed so if you are watching it you must being through some hard times so this will be a little pep talk in case I'm not there to give one in person.

"Some times bad things happen. No matter how much you think you could have prevented what ever is happening, know that you couldn't have because if you could have, you would have."

My mind immediately flashed to Aunt May bleeding out on the bathroom floor of our old apartment. The battle on Titan with Thanos and I almost had the over glorified glove off. The weapons deal on the ferry.

"You're a good kid, Peter. You always have been. You look out for your friends and your family like they were yourself. You always think about the big picture and the effect of everything.

"But you do have to remember, with great power comes with great responsibility. If you have any power you have a responsibility to yourself and people around you to do what is best everyone.

"But most importantly you have to remember that no matter how much you think you messed up your family will always love you and remember that family isn't only DNA. Family is the people who put yourself around and who are good to you.

"I love you kid. Stay safe and out of trouble, I have to go pick you and Ned up from school now. I love you."

"I love you too Ben." I whisper to the computer as Ben shuts off the camera.

The video goes black after that and I know the CD has played everything on it.

I allow myself to start the video over and cry with a smile on my lips as I watch Ben's face flash around my screen.

Sorry if this is actually really bad, I tried. I'm just not good at making sappy things like this because I'm not a sappy person. - Emma Rose.