The group was silent as they watched Spider-Man leave. None of them knew why he left, not even Tony.
"What…just happened?" Scott asked, the first to look back at everyone.
"Not sure," Steve replied, then he turned his head. "Tony?"
"I'm not fully sure, but may have something to do with the fact that you were going to force him to do something he doesn't want to do?" Tony suggested, a very distinct edge in his words.
"You mean something you don't want him to do?" Steve corrected, who was now getting to his feet. Even though it was a question, he said it more like a statement. Everyone in the room looked at Tony with nervous anticipation of what was about to ensue.
"I mean what I said," Tony muttered angrily. "I know he's capable. I'm fully aware of that. I offered him a spot on the team and he declined. I'm not about to force him into it. He doesn't need that." When Steve didn't immediately respond, Sam cut in.
"He's young, isn't he?" Sam asked, but it wasn't a question. "He probably doesn't like being talked about like he's a kid with no say." He paused before continuing. "How old is he, Tony?"
"…That's not information for me to disclose," he answered after a few tense seconds. Even more silence hung in the air until it was broken yet again by Tony. "I'll go talk to him."
"No you won't," Clint said, standing up. "We still have business to take care of. Someone else go get him. Even if he's not an Avenger, he should still be on the same page as the rest of us.
Thor began to walk toward the door. "I'll retrieve him," he announced, and no one made a move to stop him. They simply watched as he walked in the direction Spider-Man had headed in.
"Sit down," Wanda said, speaking for the first time since the beginning of the meeting. "You don't want to freak him out."
"Are you sure this was a good idea?" T'Challa asked, looking towards Steve. "Maybe some more time to let the dust settle would have been ide-"
"No," Steve sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Better now than never. Too much time would have destroyed any chance of reforming." Then he turned to Tony. "Look, we may have differing opinions on certain topics, but there are more important things. What if the Avengers had been split during the alien attack on New York?"
"We probably would have teamed up, defeated them the exact same way and gone out for shawarma as a silent truce and forgiveness," Tony responded. When most of the room gave him a weird look, he sighed. "But it wouldn't have gone well either."
"Exactly," Steve nodded, relieved that they were finally getting somewhere. "You don't have to forgive, Tony. We couldn't expect that of you. What we ask is for co-operation. Anyone who is an official Avenger or was involved in the airport incident is welcome to stay here and are free to move in and out at their own will. Any of the aforementioned are required to take part in any missions they are called to as soon as physically possible."
"All sounds very technical, Cap," the billionaire commented, feigning doubt. Everyone noticed how he was referring to Steve as Cap in a friendly manner - this might actually work.
"That's because we put it in writing," Sam stated, sliding a single piece of paper with a few paragraphs of text on it. "You don't have to sign anything - we all know how well that went last time. Just agree and we'll go from there. No exceptions once you agree."
"Does anyone disagree?" Steve asked loudly. No one objected, so he nodded and stood up. "Meeting adjourned, then. I'll go see if Thor and Spider-Man agree to these terms, which I anticipate they will, then everything will be settled.
"And if they don't?" Tony spoke up. Steve turned back around and raised a single eyebrow. "Hypothetically," he added.
"Then they can't stay here," Steve told him simply. "And they must have little to no contact with members of the Avengers and not associate themselves with us." Tony nodded and stood up as well, and soon everyone else followed suit and dispersed through the compound. Everyone knew that Steve was talking about Spider-Man - even a blind man could see how protective Tony was of him, not just of the superhero but of the person underneath the mask.
Thor was happy that he found Spider-Man relatively quickly. What surprised him was where exactly the boy was - hanging upside down just outside the front door. He seemed to be glued to the roof which covered the area outside the entrance to the compound, sitting cross-legged but hanging like a bat.
"How are you doing that?" Thor asked, his naturally deep voice booming through what had just been silence. Spider-Man jumped and turned his head, then stuck his hand to the ceiling and almost gracefully unfolded himself so that he was in a normal position, then dropped down a foot or so to the ground. The entire time he maintained eye contact with Thor, or at least that's what it seemed like since the white lenses never strayed from his face. "Of course, I have power over lightning but that's because I'm a god. But I've never heard of a god who can stick to surfaces like that. Is it the suit?"
"…No," Spider-Man replied, his voice cracking as he spoke with what seemed like a combination of nerves and puberty. He was definitely young, Thor decided. "I can do it without the suit, but I'm not a g- It's a long story."
"I'm sure," Thor chuckled lightly. "Do you want to go back to the meeting? I'm sure it will be more civilised now." Spider-Man shook his head.
"I'd rather not," he said slowly. "Just, not yet. I might just, you know, stay out here for a while." Thor nodded, then turned to leave the boy in peace. "You don't have to leave if you don't want!" Spider-Man added, almost too quickly. Thor chuckled slightly, then neutralised his expression and turned back.
"If you insist," he shrugged. He sat down on the step which led up to the door, and when Spider-Man hesitated he gestured for him to sit down beside him. Spider-Man seemed to be several inches shorter than himself, and despite the way his skintight suit showed muscles through it he still appeared fairly skinny.
Thor grinned as he looked back at the boy. He didn't have to see his eyes to know he was staring intently at the eye-patch he had recently begun to wear.
"Do you want to know how this happened?" Thor asked, laughing a bit. He really didn't know why - the story wasn't exactly a comedy. Except, looking back, it kind of was. The lenses of the Spider-Man mask widened and Thor imagined the boy's eyes widening behind them. When he didn't respond, Thor launched into the story. He spoke of being locked in that cage for so long, his reunion with Loki, his fight with Hela, battling the Hulk to escape that godforsaken planet and everything that had happened. He was delighted when Spider-Man laughed at all the jokes and froze with shock at the drama. Thor couldn't wait to tell the Avengers what happened - they might not show such childlike wonder but it would certainly be interesting.
"Sounds like Mr Stark has really been rubbing off on you," Spider-Man said when he finished. Thor laughed and conceded with that - he could see where the boy was coming from with that one.
A knock on the door - from the inside, which was a weird thing to happen - had the two spinning with obviously enhanced reflexes. Thor leant over to open it, and none other than Steve Rogers stood in the frame, clutching a piece of paper in his hand. Even though Steve was a bit shorter than Thor himself, it made Spider-Man seem even smaller.
"Hey," Steve greeted, looking back and forth at the two men in front of him as if he didn't know which one to settle his gaze on. "The meeting finished, you just have to agree to these terms. Don't worry - no signatures." He quickly realised that Thor had been absent during the whole incident and Spider-Man had most likely been unaware of the full situation, so they wouldn't really get what he was referring to. It didn't really matter, though, as Spider-Man just took the paper from his grip to read and Thor simply spared it a cursory glance over the kid's shoulder.
"I agree to those terms," Thor nodded, crossing his arms and grinning. "Fairly self-explanatory." Spider-Man seemed to read over it a few times, probably nitpicking for any fine print, but after not finding any slowly nodded his consent and handed the sheet back.
"That seems fine," he said, though somewhat hesitantly. "But I won't be living here. Speaking of which, I have to get back home, so-" Steve raised his hand to cut him off and simply nodded.
"That's fine," he stated. "Just swing by fairly often. And call if you need anything or something goes wrong. You patrol around New York, right?"
"Mostly Queens, but yeah," Spider-Man confirmed. "I guess if I hear something's happening in the city then I'll go over, but most of the time it's just easier to stay close to home."
"I understand that," Steve nodded, a small smile on his features. "So, yeah, if anything gets too hectic and you need backup, just let us know and we'll be there. I'm assuming you have Tony's number?" When Spider-Man nodded, Steve did too and gestured for the kid to take off. With a quick thanks, he left in a car obviously being driven by Happy. Steve had been expecting him to go web-slinging away, but then remembered that the compound wasn't the most convenient place to do that from. Steve lingered as he watched the car drive off into the distance, then went back inside with Thor close behind him.