Spiderdad

13

"Why don't you care?" Tony asked, forcing his voice even.

"Because I'm just me. I'm pathetic, I'm bad at handling my emotions, I'm not even supposed to have those! I don't want them! I'm stupid, I'm... I'm me. And why on Earth would I care about me?" Peter's voice trailed off until it was barely a whisper.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Dinner's in an hour," then he walked away.

Peter collapsed onto his bed and choked back a sob. How stupid can I be? A buzz caught his attention and he looked over at his shattered phone. He picked it up, almost instantly cutting his thumb open on the destroyed screen.

"Fuck," he whispered as he snatched his thumb away, then looked at the ceiling, "FRIDAY can you tell me what my recent notifications are?"

"Of course. You have seventeen texts from Ned Leeds and twelve texts from Michelle Jones, plus three missed calls," FRIDAY answered, "Would you like me to read them to you?"

"Yes please."

FRIDAY read off twenty nine texts total and replayed the missed calls from MJ. They were all the same really. Both of his friends wondering where he was, if he was okay, the usual if Peter failed to show up to school. He simply sent a text back to both of his friends, saying he was okay and would be back at school the next day. He sighed heavily and left to the bathroom and pulled out the first aid kit. The large scabbed up cut on the side of his face stung horribly as he tried to put some gauze over it. He inhaled sharply at the pain then threw the gauze off to the side. Really he just wanted to ask Wanda to tend the wound, she was always so gentle, like a loving big sister. He wasn't about to go to her like a lost puppy though, so he left the wound alone and went back to his room.

"Hey FRIDAY can I eat a bullet?" Peter sarcastically asked the AI.

"No, but you can eat dinner," FRIDAY replied.

Peter rolled his eyes and left to go eat dinner with the team. It was surprisingly quiet for the majority of the time until Peter blurted out a question.

"Does anyone else like King Kunta?"

Everyone, save Bucky, shot him a confused glance.

"It's a pretty good song," Bucky said.

"What're you talking about?" Bruce asked.

"It's a song by Kendrick Lamar," Peter explained, "It's a really good one," seeing everyone's confused glances, Peter rehearsed a few lines, "Bitch, where you when I was walkin'?
Now I run a gang, got the whole world talkin'
King Kunta, everybody wanna cut the legs off him
Kunta, black man taking no losses, oh yeah."

Tony raised an eyebrow, "I've never heard that song before. Wait Peter are you drunk?"

"No! I-" Natasha grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head roughly to face her, "OW!"

Natasha examines his eyes, "No he's fine."

"King Kunta is just a good song, you guys should listen to it," Bucky defended for Peter.

"Like a rap song? Bucky you grew up in the fucking forties!" Sam exclaimed, "How are you familiar with a rap artist?"

Bucky shrugged, "I listen to Peter when he talks about his favorite music. And just when he talks."

Steve frowned, "well now I feel bad."

"Eh," Peter shrugged, "I'm used to it."

Tony sighed, this explained why Peter didn't think he was important. He was never listened to, no one ever made him feel like he should care about himself.

"Hey kid, what else do you like to listen to?" Tony asked.

Peter's eyes lit up happily, "Led fucking Zeppelin!"

Soon Peter was rambling about his favorite musicians and artists as the Avengers gladly listened.

"And I'm not gonna lie Eminem is great too!" Peter stated.

Tony opened his mouth to lecture him on how Eminem's music wasn't appropriate for him to listen to but thought better of it. To be honest, Tony was starting to think that Eminem was innocent compared to Peter.