Superfamily One Shots

Different But The Same

**Request for OfficiallyDoneWLife where the Avengers find a new young man to replace Peter, but figure out exactly what they're missing later and make things right. This one was a lot of fun to write, but I totally went off course at the end so I hope it's still what you want. As a side note, I just put "writes online fiction stories" on my resume, so let's all cross our fingers I get the job without them asking me more about my fanfic, lol. Enjoy!!**

Peter bounced on the ball of his feet in the elevator as he waited for the doors to slide open. He was just getting done with finals, so this was the first time he'd be seeing the team in a couple weeks. Finally, the doors slid open and-

The team was watching a movie, a head of blond, messy waves peeking out from the back of the couch in between Tony's own curls and Bucky's long, braided back hair.

"Hey, guys." Peter's excitement was dying quickly, his shoulders deflating and his smile fading. 

Tony didn't look over his shoulder. It was actually Sam who looked over his shoulder at Peter, shooting the teen a happy and genuine smile. "Hey, web-head! It's been a while!"

Same stood to give Peter a hug, which was kind of odd, but... everyone else just laughed at a joke in the movie and Peter jumped a little. Sam watched as the teen watched them all laugh and joke. The new kid said something about "and this is why I love this movie" and Peter took a closer look. It was some sci-fi flick, something pre-90's judging by the special effects. Peter scoffed a little.

"I'm going to go check on some code I had running over the last week," he said to Sam, who was looking extremely torn about the whole situation, but ultimately let Peter go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was hours later that Sam came down to the lab, a plate of Tony's famous spaghetti in his hands. Peter looked down at it angrily, but let Sam into his lab. Peter didn't even know why he was so mad. Why was he so mad?

"I brought you dinner," Sam said, setting the plate down. "I figured since you're staying the night..." Sam looked around the lab, noting that it was pretty much exactly like Tony's - half-empty mugs of coffee were strewn around and balanced on all sorts of tables and towers of books. "Are you... Are you okay?"

Peter pushed the spaghetti to the side, instead going back to his work on the code. Sam hadn't done much work in therapy in the last few weeks, but he knew when someone needed support. He leaned back on one of the work benches, his hands shoved in his pajama pants pockets.

Peter just kept his head down and worked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the week passed slowly. The kid hanging around the team was named Harley, and according to one Tony Stark, he was a genius.

Peter was angry. Angry that Harley was picking the movies, working in the labs, taking the guest room Peter normally stayed in. Every time he heard someone call for Harley or overheard a conversation about how funny and sweet and kind Harley was, Peter saw red. He wanted to hate the kid, he wanted to punch the kid.

The anger lasted a day.

And then Peter noticed the way Natasha ruffled Harley's hair, or how Tony let Harley work on the cars, or watched how Steve made Harley lunch, and Peter was jealous. When Clint started a paint-ball war and let Harley used Peter's special red and blue gun, he felt jealousy. Red hot and all consuming. Peter hated being jealous, but here he was, sneering every time he heard the kid's name.