This was the hardest thing Peter had ever had to do, which was ridiculous, because writing a stupid letter shouldn't be harder than becoming a superhero. He kept telling himself that, but the pencil still shook and his mind was blank. Finally he exhaled and began to write.
Dear Dad and Pops,
I really hope you're not reading this, because that means I'm either dying or dead or seriously injured, and I really hate hospitals…
The day was average enough. Peter woke up late, as in school was almost over late. After considering shortly, he decided that it couldn't be worth it. Luckily, his parents were almost all the way across the world, in a meeting to hopefully reach an agreement with another powerful company that would definitely improve revenue for both. His parents were extremely insistent he went to school, unless he was in bad health, and then they tended to dote on him nonstop.
After finding leftover pizza and heating it up, Peter stretched and decided today would be a good day to fight crime. It was cool enough that the suit didn't make him worry about heat stroke, but he wouldn't be shivering either. "JARVIS, mind getting the suit ready?"
He decided to hide his suit in a hidden compartment he installed in his room. There he stored the suit, webslingers, and various medical aids; superheroing could be rough. He was sure Tony would find it, but both Steve and Tony firmly believed a teenager's room was the teenager's alone, and privacy should be given. Peter knew he was one of the lucky ones.
Standing on the edge of the tower still gave Peter a surge of adrenaline. He turned to shout at JARVIS to inform his parents he was asleep if they called before plummeting off the Avengers tower.
Tony and Steve sat in their hotel room, relaxing after a long day of diplomacy. Neither were particularly good at it. Steve was bluntly honest to whoever he spoke to, whether it was Peter or the president, and Tony just tended to piss people off.
"Should we call Peter?" Steve asked, glancing at Tony, who was reclining in the plush seat the hotel provided.
"I'm sure he's fine," Tony said, but he leaned forward anyway, signaling Steve to call and put it on speaker.
"Hello, JARVIS." Steve began. "Is Peter there?"
"Peter is currently asleep after watching the Harry Potter series until 5AM."
They both chuckled, "Alright, J. Just tell him to call when he can. We'll be home in a week or less."
"Yes sirs. I am ending the call."
The ending tone clicked and they both leant back against their pillows. "Should we go eat or something?"
"I'm perfectly content to sleep here while snuggling you."
"Okay."
Peter let out an exuberant laugh as he flipped over the attacker. He interrupted a mugging, and as the attacked woman ran, he occupied the assailant. He eventually decided he'd had enough fun and spun the man to the wall. He didn't need to run into Gwen's dad again; he wasn't impressed much by Peter or Spiderman.
He crawled up the wall, watching Manhattan as he sat down. Being a superhero was tiring. His aching feet relented as he took the weight off them, allowing them to swing. It was a beautiful day.
Until a scream shattered it.
Immediately Peter was on his feet, looking around to see where the attack was. A young woman was being chased by three guys, all carrying knives and reaching for her, just a few blocks over, in a rougher street. They cornered her and she ran into an alley, which Peter personally thought couldn't be dumber.
He dropped down, using their surprise to easily dispatch the largest before beginning to distract the others. These were more than average purse snatchers and car thieves; they were tough and aiming to kill. As he webbed one up, he felt an agonizing pain in his back.
He turned and delivered a hard punch, webbing the now dazed man to the wall before webbing the other after a kick.
Peter quickly leaned against the wall, dizzy. He placed his hands over the wound, feeling blood gush pass them. He would be passing out soon, he knew. He staggered to the front of the alley, which was deserted.
He activated JARVIS by saying his particular code, although it was slightly slurred. JARVIS began speaking. "Master Peter, I have contacted the nearest Avenger. What is your status?"
"Knife in back. Blood everywhere. Activate security protocol number 8."
"Yes, sir."
He heard a car screech beside him before he saw it in blurry vision, passing out.
Steve sat in the blue recliner, intently listening to the other man's proposal. His concentration was interrupted by Tony's phone vibrating on the table. Glancing over in disapproval, he looked back to the gentleman as Tony excused himself to the hallway.
Tony groaned; Steve would surely chew him out later. He answered and brought it to his ear, "Peter, this isn't-"
"Master Stark, Peter is in trouble. He was stabbed at 3:54, and en route to the tower med bay." JARVIS intoned quickly.
"How serious?" He asked, already jogging back to the meeting room.
"He has lost quite a bit of blood, and Mrs. Romanov is very worried about possible rib and spine damage, as well as concussion from hitting his head on the pavement after passing out."
"We'll be there as soon as possible. Tell Peter we love him if he wakes up."
"Yes sir."
Tony burst into the meeting room. He could see Steve begin to rebuke him, so he blurted out, "Peter was stabbed."
Steve leapt to his feet, apologizing to the businessman as he left. "I'm sorry, but our son comes first. I hope this deal can be returned to?"
"Of course. I understand completely. Go." The man said, knowing that if his daughter was hurt, he'd be running out too.
They both sprinted to their private plane, placing the destination at highest possible speed before calling JARVIS and demanding to be kept informed.
Natasha Romanov was a hard person to scare- nearly impossible, really. But her heart quit beating when she saw Spiderman slumped over on the side of the road. It almost started beating again when she saw the blood all over both of them, which stopped it again. She broke every law getting back to the tower, calling in the Avengers healers, some of which were magical to the tower.
Every Avenger loved Peter. He was raised with all of them being uncles and she was his Aunt Nat. Shakily, she told JARVIS to inform everyone as she forced herself to breathe deeply and focus on getting him home.
He began breathing shallowly and she felt a tear slip down her cheek.
Peter woke up in the dark. The monitor's incessant beating made him wish he was back asleep, but a hand squeezed his, making him try to open his eyes.
"Easy, Peter," Natasha murmured, stroking his forehead. "Relax. You had a rough day."
"Aunt Nat?"
"Yeah, Pete, it's me." She took a deep breath. "You're lucky it's me, seeing as everywhere else would be asking where Peter was."
He mentally chuckled. Aunt Nat was the only Avenger who knew his secret. She taught him to fight and secretly let him accompany her on some missions. Small ones, of course, but it gave him some much needed experience. She also forced him to train with her. She made sure he had a good chance of surviving being a superhero.
"You can go back to sleep. Heal up, I'll keep your parents quiet. You need rest."
"Try not to make them hate me?"
Her resolve not to cry was almost broken at the break in his voice. "They can't hate you. And you can even stay with me if you need to, Peter. I love you as much as they do; all of us love you. You're not going anywhere."
She knew his deepest fear was Tony and Steve putting him back in an orphanage. That wasn't happening to him ever again as long as Natasha Romanov was alive.
Steve and Tony rushed into the med bay, meeting Natasha outside of it. She stood blocking the door, a serious expression on her face. Her stance was closed, clearly she was ready to fight.
"What's wrong, Widow?"
"I can't let you see Peter yet," She said boldly. She stopped their protests and battle stances with a hand gesture. "He made me promise." Well, that was a lie, but that was Nat's specialty. "Peter has a huge secret that you need to know before you see him. It's in here."
She held out a letter. "I promise he's okay and recovering, but read this and discuss it first. Remember I'll take Peter's side no matter what." She turned on her heel and locked the door, forcing them to sit down and read the letter.
Immediately they noticed the shaky handwriting and took a deep breath. Steve read it out loud to Tony, who had his hand over his eyes.
Dear Dad and Pops,
I really hope you're not reading this, because that means I'm either dying or dead or seriously injured, and I really hate hospitals.
It's impossible to put this simply, but I have to. I'm not just Peter anymore; I'm Spiderman.
I was bit by a radioactive spider a few months ago, and now my DNA is all messed up and I have these freaky powers and basically, I can't be normal ever again. It's literally in my DNA.
I can sense danger, stick to walls, have super vision and hearing, and now I'm weirdly flexible. I'm still discovering what all I can do, and I keep growing every day. I built the webslingers and made the suit myself. It may look flimsy, but I invented it to be almost as strong as an Iron Man suit.
Barely anyone knows. JARVIS, Aunt Nat, and Gwen are the only people I can really think of. They're all helping me. JARVIS doesn't do much but keep my secret and protect me when he can. Aunt Nat is the reason I'm alive at all. She's teaching me everything I need to know, fighting and spying and everything. Without her, I'd have died the first time I ever stopped an assault or mugging or gang bang or that one lizard dude (although you did help). Gwen just supports me and helps fix me up sometimes. She's amazing. I may marry her one day.
Anyway, basically, I love you both. I really do. And I understand your concerns. But I can never stop being Spiderman. It's who I am now. I'll never quit as long as I can help the good and protect people.
If you choose to send me away, I understand. I hid everything from you. I'm sorry.
Deep love and apologies,
Peter Parker
Steve and Tony both sat in silence for a minute before Tony mumbled, "I can't believe he thought we may send him away."
Steve chuckled darkly, "That's what you decided to comment on? Our son has been lying to us and doing exactly what we never wanted him to do, and you're worried about that?"
Tony exhaled. "I have to say I'm disappointed. But he got a ton of that from you. You would do anything to help people and save the world, even willing to get super powers for it. So did Peter, although accidentally I suspect. I understand why he would hide it, and I'm proud of him. I'm angry, but right now I'm so worried I'll ignore that until I can calmly address him. But it's just… You know how terrified he was when he got him that he would be sent back, and he's still scared of it. I thought we raised him to know we would always want him. Always."
Steve sighed. "I love him and I'd never send him back. I just hate he lied to us to do good."
"You lied on your enrollment forms."
"I know."
"You can't really criticize him. He's just following our examples. And it seems he got some good help too…"
"I can't believe she kept it a secret. He's our son!"
"He probably used his puppy dog eyes. He's way too good at that."
"I bet he did."
They leaned against each other in silence before Tony sighed, standing up. "I have to see him. I don't care about anything right now; he just needs to be okay."
Steve agreed, pulling himself up and together they walked toward the med bay.
Natasha greeted them warily. "If you hurt him, he's coming with me."
"We know. We're not angry."
"Right now, anyway."
"Prepare yourselves. He's scared and tired and needs some sleep." She quietly walked away, her footfalls nearly silent. They stared at the door separating them from Peter, gathering themselves before Steve carefully opened the door.
Peter was in a hospital bed, pale and bruised. Wires covered him, and the many machines monitoring him broke the silence. His hair was messy as ever, falling at every angle, and his head fell to the right, as it always did when he slept.
Steve and Tony took a deep breath before walking to the couch positioned near the bed. It was comfortable, thanks to Tony's insistence, but just then, it seemed like stone. Tony studied Peter's face, wondering how his son could hide something this big from the Avengers.
Steve interrupted his musings, grabbing his hand and holding it. A breathy laugh escaped him. "I guess he got this from me."
"Could have. Neither of us are exactly known for following the rules."
"I just wish we knew."
"I guess we do now." Tony exhaled long and hard, shaking his head. "He hates hospitals as much as I do."
"Lucky he's in our med bay then, hmm?"
"I doubt he'll see it that way."
A soft groan invaded the quiet, as Peter adjusted his position slowly, eyes still closed. Steve quickly grabbed his hand, squeezing it. "Come on, bud. Time to wake up."
Bleary brown eyes opened before blinking slowly. "Pops? Dad?"
"Hey, Pete. Do you know what happened?" Tony asked, trying to be sensitive but burning for answers.
"Umm," Peter moaned, "I'm guessing I got stabbed?"
"Yeah, you scared us half to death," Steve answered, itching to hold Peter but knowing it'd only hurt him. "How's your head?"
"Ughhhhh. Don't ask."
"That'd be your concussion. After you got stabbed, you fell and hit your head. Nat found you."
"Did you get my letter?"
"Yeah. We'll talk about that later."
"M'kay," Peter mumbled, before slipping back into sleep.