No, You Move

Peter shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, feeling his nerves get the better of him. Normally, when in costume he became much more confident that he normally was, and could become a cocky little asshole (Stark's words), fully capable of aggravating even the most stoic of personalities.

But normally he never came face to face with Captain America.

He'd been dealing with a seemingly isolated mugging which turned out to be gang related violence, and wound up having to face about 15 to 20 armed gangbangers (they hadn't even laughed at his admittedly inappropriate Joke about it, rude) when seemingly out of the blue a strikingly familiar shield flies in and ricocheted off 3 different crooks' heads and returned to the imposing figure of Captain America himself, laws of physics be damned. Of course, being the consummate professional he is (not really) he didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and quickly got to work with the captain and together they took all of 2 minutes to knock out the crew, tie them up and contact the authorities on their whereabouts. Afterwards, he turned towards the rest of the hero(?) and noticed that their eyes were on him.

He cleared his throat in an attempt to fill the increasingly awkward silence. "Soooooo," he began, drawing out the word "Uh, good job there with the whole-," he mimicked Captain America's throwing of the shield with an unnecessary whoosh noise. "-thing back there. Good stuff." thumbs up "Real effective".

Smooth, Parker. Real smooth.

Captain America shrugged in response. "You too, son." He complimented."Those webs of yours are really something." His lip quirked in amusement, "Real effective."

Peter gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his head (nervous gesture, Cap noted). "Yeah, well...thanks"

Peter felt an acute sense of relief at being spared from further embarrassing himself when he heard footsteps approach then, only to flounder when he laid eyes on one of the prettiest girls he'd ever seen.

"Cap," she began in an Eastern European accent. "Police ETA is 5 minutes, we need to get out of here asap."

"Roger that, Wanda."

Before he could stop himself, Peter snickered at his unintentional pun. "Heh, Roger"

Wanda immediately turned around to face him, perfect eyebrow raised at him. "Is this the infamous Spider-Man who's been all over the internet?"

"That would be him." Steve responded with a smile directed at him. Wanda stepped forward and extended her hand towards him in an offer to shake it. "Wanda." She said.

Peter felt his heart skip a beat. "Spider-Man." he responded with faux confidence, before worriedly back tracking. "I mean I'm Spider-man, not you. But of course you knew that because you called me Spider-Man, not you. Because you aren't Spider-Man..Not that you couldn't be! It's just that I am, and your not. Spider-Man, that is..."

The two heroes simply looked a him. He felt his face burn up in embarrassment as looked back at them, willing his brain to come up with anything even remotely clever to say.

"Ack."

His brain was the worst

After a couple of beats of silence, Cap spoke up. "Anyways, Wanda's right. We really should be heading out now. Nice meeting you Spider-Man."

Peter, relieved at the ending of his embarrassing moment, smiled behind his mask. "Nice meeting you too."

Cap smiled at him, then turned to Wanda. "We good to go?" She nodded in affirmation. "All set Cap. Sam said he and the others will be at the rendezvous point in half an hour tops. So no rush getting there, just as long as we're not seen by the police we should be alright."

Cap nods at this. "Good to know." He then turns to Spider-Man. "Come with me, son. I'd like to have a word with you if you don't mind."

Even though his 'spider-sense' wasn't tingling, red flags were immediately raised in Peter's mind at this and he stiffened slightly. Sure, they may have just fought together, and he was the freaking Captain America, but he was still highly paranoid about his secret identity. After all, who knows what he would do if he found out some 16 year old was the man (boy) behind the mask, the infamous vigilante who'd divided opinions since he first came to public infamy over ten months ago. Cap seemed to notice his apprehension and immediately raised his hands in a show of no hostility.

"Don't worry, son. You're not in any trouble, I just wanted to get to know you a bit before we go. I promise, no funny business. You don't have to if you don't want to."

Peter quirked his brow beneath his mask and folded his arms. "No funny business?"

Steve gave him a winning smile. "I promise you'll be the funniest part of the conversation."

Peter smiled at that. "...Okay Cap. Lead the way."

The three of them had come to a stop on an abandoned warehouse near the city outskirts. Wanda was talking to someone on her comm, and as such had left the two males alone to have their 'talk'. Peter, not sure what to do with his arms, swung them around for a bit before eventually putting them behind his back after noticing Cap fold his arms and watch him with an amused expression. Despite being the one to ask Peter to talk, he seemed content with silently watching him. After a while, Peter became uncomfortable with just standing there when he could be out helping civilians, New York at night was quite dangerous after all.

"Look Cap, not that this isn't a stimulating experience and all, but is there a reason you called me here? Cause I kinda have places to be."

Steve looked at him for a beat before giving a small smile. "Ah yes, I suppose you would. After all, you're not like us Avengers, you have a separate life from the costume."

"Yeah, something like that." Peter then tried to get to the point.

"Well, I don't blame you. You're Aunt May doesn't seem like someone to cross"

Peter snorts, "You're telling me, you should have seen her last week when I came home smelling like a dumpster after..." Peter trailed off as his mind finally caught up with Captain America's words.

Cap frowned, brows furrowed in concern. "Peter? You okay there, son?"

"...You called me Peter."

Cap nodded, his eyes full of understanding. "It's your name, after all." He continued, noticing Peter's unwillingness to talk. "SHIELD tends to keep track of any potential threats where they can. So if they find out some costumed individual with obviously enhanced abilities gaining notoriety, you can bet they'll find out everything they can about you." Peter felt like there was an intense ringing in his ears at Cap's words, simultaneously feeling the need to flee as far and as fast as possible and stay to find out what exactly they knew (although they already knew his name, so it's safe to assume they know enough to have him by the balls).

All of a sudden, he was regretting agreeing to this talk

"Peter Parker, son of Richard Parker and Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker. 16 years old. IQ above the 99.9999999922nd percentile. Midtown Science High School honors student." Cap listed off. "Loves gummy worms and lasagna, hates his Aunt's walnut date loaf." He added that last part with a chuckle.

Peter blanched, knowing that even if he did run they'd easily find him. "So you know who I am, Cap."

"Call me Steve." He said with a warm smile.

"Okay then, 'Steve'. You know who I am, where I live...what do you want from me? Is this some kind of blackmail government thing?"

Cap (Steve, he said to call him) gave him a smile and took of his cowl. "Nothing of the sort. I was just wondering why a kid like you who's so intent on keeping a low profile decided to get involved in an Avengers dispute." He then frowned. "What did Stark say to convince you? No offense, but this isn't your problem son."

Peter sighed, taking his mask off (hey they already know who he is, and he was sweating. It was summer after all) and running a hand through his hair. "He didn't."

Steve's brows pinched in confusion. "He didn't?"

"Nothing he was saying was actually convincing."

"Then why?"

"Because.."

"Because what?"

"Because I'll be the next target after the Avengers." Peter answered, feeling the stress of the past few weeks catching up to him with him finally having someone to confide in. Stark wasn't exactly the type one could easily open up to after all, preferring to offer directions from an emotional distance. "Look, I may be a kid but I'm not stupid. You know my IQ scores. First they target you guys. You're the Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Government sanctioned practically. You're the figureheads of the hero community. If they get you guys sign, then anyone else like me with 'powers' or whatever you wanna call them will eventually be targeted."

Steve maintained an unreadable expression, but inwardly was angry at how distressed and exhausted Peter sounded. Clearly this was something that was bothering him greatly. Poor kid, no teenager should have to worry about things like that. His biggest worry should be about college.

"You've definitely seen how the public treat me, I'm not very popular with the police either. So I figured that, working with someone like Stark who had the backing of the world governments would get me a bit of goodwill in the long run. And maybe, I'd be able to cut a deal where I can keep my identity private. I asked Stark, he said he could negotiate something like that."

Peter sat down, rubbing his face tiredly with his glove hands. "Look Cap-er, Steve, I'm sorry about the airport thing. It's nothing personal, but I have important people I need to look after. My Aunt, my decathlon team...if the government comes for me I wanna be able to keep them away from the crossfire of my problems. I don't want the government to use them as leverage to get me to forcibly do what they want. If I get Avenger backing in the form of Tony Stark himself, that could go a long way in preventing that. I hope you can understand that."

Steve gave him an assuring smile. "I understand, son. Believe me, I do. I don't hold that against you, doing what you can to protect the people in your life is an honorable thing to do. It's something I myself always try to do. In fact, that's exactly why I chose to go against the accords in the first place."

Peter raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner. Steve just smiled and sat next to him. "I suppose since you told me why you went with Stark, I can tell you why I didn't. After you decrypted the leaked SHIELD files about Project Insight-yes Peter, SHILED knew about that as well-I'm sure you read all about HYDRA's infiltration. They very nearly had control over not only weapons that could calculate but also eliminate any perceived threats to them, but also have control over the Avengers. That's something that could very easily happen again, I'm not too keen on taking that chance."

"But wasn't HYDRA completely crushed by you guys after that?"

A dark shadow passed over Steve's face. "I asked myself a similar question after I found them in SHIELD. Cut one head, two grow back. That's HYDRA for you."

Peter was quiet, having not considered the possibility HYDRA could still be around. Steve just sighed. "Even if they somehow are completely gone. Who's to say that's the only threat of that nature the government could face. What about corrupt members of the very same Accords committee? General Thaddeus Rossi? Yeah, he's been trying to recreate the Super Soldier Serum for years. I know for a fact he'd try to use me to fully realize his dream of an army of super soldiers. Why would we need such an army if the Avengers already exist?"

Peter looked sick to his stomach, seemingly not having considered the possibilities Steve had presented. Steve felt guilty at this. He really didn't want to give the kid anymore to worry about, but he did want him to consider his decision with more insight available to him. He turned to face him directly, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Son, you're a good kid. Your heart's obviously in the right place, and you've got a good head on your shoulders. I know what it's like to want to help the little guy. I wish I was able to stick around, I don't like seeing you so stressed out, and I can imagine things aren't gonna get easier after this."

Peter kept his head down, taking a minute to take in everything "You know," he eventually began as a response, "When I first got these powers all I could think about was me and my benefits. I mean, I've never been popular, I'm not good looking, I'm not rich or anything. So all I could think about was that my powers was the universe's way of giving me retribution. My uncle-" His voice cracked here, "my uncle had this saying, 'with great power comes great responsibility'. He believed if someone needed help, if you had the ability to help them then you should."

Steve smiled and squeezed his shoulder. "He sounds like a wise man."

Peter gave a watery smile. "The greatest man I knew. Anyway, there's this guy at my school. Flash Thompson. Always gave me grief, always making fun of me, embarrassed me in front of everyone on a near daily basis. After I got the powers, he comes around to mess with me, so I retaliate. At this point, I didn't have a proper grasp on my power so I ended up breaking his arm. His father makes my uncle pay for for his hospital bill, and like I said, we were never wealthy. I remember my uncle telling me off about it. He said he wasn't angry about the bills even though he couldn't afford them and they'd cause him alot of stress, he was angry that I retaliated. I snapped, I asked him if it's fair to take his crap. He said that's no excuse to hurt someone. He gave me the 'great power, great responsibility' speech. I was too angry to care and I stormed off. I did feel bad about the bills, so I decided to look for a way to get some cash. I found an add in the paper about lasting 3 minutes with some underground fighter for $3000 that evening. I knew I could do it, so I went. Naturally, I succeeded, but the guy in charge tells me I'm only getting $300. There was no contract so I couldn't force him to pay up, he just said 'It's not my problem'. Later when I'm leaving, some crook steals from the guy. I could have easily stopped him, he ran right next to me but I was still bitter at being scammed so I let him go. He even tossed me a couple of stacks in gratitude. The promoter runs up to me, fuming, asking why I didn't stop him. I threw his words in his face. 'It's not my problem'." Peter mimicked the promoter bitterly.

"As I go home with the money, ready to apologize to my uncle I see police at the house. They tell me what they told my aunt, my uncle was shot and killed by some crook trying to take his car. Turns out that he'd driven to the library looking for me since I'd turned my phone off and I usually go there. I was pissed, as soon as they left I went out looking for him. I hacked to police scanners and found out they tracked the car to an abandoned warehouse. I arrived before the cops did, ready to exact vengeance when I see the face of the crook." He he laughed bitterly, a sound that was such a far cry from what he'd displayed up to that point that Steve jumped slightly. "Turns out it was the guy who robbed the promoter. Because of my selfishness, my stupidity and my self serving mentality the man who'd raised me like his own son was killed in cold blood." His voice was full of self loathing and guilt. "Ever since then, everything I've done as Spider-Man, I did to protect people. Living with great responsibility. I thought if I went with Stark I was doing the right thing, now I'm not so sure anymore."

Peter looked Steve directly in his eye. "How do you do it? The world leaders are against you, you're a fugitive. Half of your former team's trying to arrest you...How do you keep it together, even when you could possibly be wrong?"

Steve gave him a serious look. "Because son, like your uncle I too believe in using your power for good. I know my view isn't perfect, I know I may be wrong. But I also know I may be right. My job is, and always has been, to help people whenever I can. I don't think I could stand by and let the government dictate when and how I should do that. This job, it's not easy...it's never easy. But it's necessary. That's what this uniform means to me. That's why I can ignore what the media says about me like you do. Because as long as there's innocent people who need help, I'll do everything in my power to help then. Even if they paint me a villain, even if they throw me in jail, brand me a traitor or have my friends turn against me. I'll never stop helping people until my heart stops beating, because the wellbeing of others comes before my personal comfort."

Peter's eyes widened at Cap's words, knowing that he wasn't just seeing Steve here. He was seeing the Captain America who'd been immortalized in history as America's greatest hero, and a true leader. Cap looked at him and his features softened. "You and I are quite similar y'know. We're cut from the same cloth. Because I know, when push comes to shove, you'll always put others before yourself. Tony and I, we both want what's best for everyone. But unfortunately things got further out of hand than either of us wanted. But you, you're still young. Maybe you can succeed where we failed." He stood up, offering Peter a hand up as well. "I've gotta go now, as you're no doubt aware, we're not exactly welcome on American soil." He gave a smirk at this.

Peter's brow furrowed. "But where you gonna go? I'm not sure any country would willingly house a fugitive like you, no offense."

"None taken. Although where I'm going is classified." Wanda, initially willing to stand at the side to give them space to talk, approached them knowing their time had run out. "Sorry to cut the heart to heart short, but we've gotta run. Sam says everyone is ready and waiting for us " She turned to Peter and smiled. "You're alot cuter without the mask"

Peter blushed different shades of red and rubbed the back of his head again "T-thanks I guess."

She turned on her heel and leapt off the roof, using what Peter assumed was some form of telekinesis to help her levitate safely onto the ground. Steve then ran to the edge of the roof, but before jumping off, turned to Peter. He tossed him an old looking phone. "Listen, if you ever need advice on anything, or just wanna talk, call me. I'm here for you, Peter." He smiled at him. "Stay safe son."

Peter smiled back at him, "You too Cap."

Steve gave him a salute and jumped off the roof. Peter remained where he was, taking in the last twenty odd minutes or so. Eventually, he smiled to himself. Cap was right, this hero business was difficult. But, he thought to himself as he put on his mask, at least he didn't have to face it alone. He made a running jump off the roof and shot a web onto the nearest building, shooting off into the city.

A/N: Just something I wrote in the middle of my lecture. Not sure if I should leave it as a one-shot or expand it later on.