So, so sorry for the wait! Every time I try to write, or proofread, someone insists on dragging me away. That, coupled with the end of my summer courses, really just sucked away all of my time. I'm hoping to get going again, though! I'm starting my third year at college, though, so I'll probably stick to updating on weekends, or when I'm babysitting haha.
Peter isn't sure how he ended up here. He's supposed to be at the small celebration that's being held for the interns in the break room. It's to celebrate the end of their summer program, the last day of which is today, and mark the start of the new school year next week.
Instead, however, he's trying to casually, yet unnoticeably, follow one of the lab workers down the hall toward the spider lab. He's been trying to get into the room for weeks, but has had no luck. He'd told his dads weeks ago that he'd try, but Dr. Connors hadn't brought them back to that lab; he seemed to have decided it was too delicate and dangerous of a project.
The keypad is a puzzle of sorts, which he doesn't know how to complete. Since today is his last chance, he's hoping he can catch what the man, whose security badge says "Jared," is putting in. He's noticed that along with the increased strength and speed, his vision and hearing is getting better. This is particularly helpful, because he now has a good angle to see the keypad, and is watching the lab worker slide the targets into place.
With the necessary knowledge he needs to get into the room, he slips back to the small gathering, grateful that no one seemed to notice his absence.
"Where'd you go?" He hears a cheerful and curious voice behind him, and he's startled out of his, apparently misconceived, thoughts.
"Oh, hey," he says, spinning to address the blonde behind him. "I just had to go to the bathroom," he lies as he rubs his ear and glances between his red cup of soda and the accusing stare of Gwen Stacy.
"Down the hall?"
What is she doing? Spying on him?
"I, yeah," he tries to improvise. "I wanted to walk around a bit. I'm not fond of parties."
He knows it's a bullshit excuse, but he's hoping she'll drop it.
"Ah, well this is quite the rager," she agrees sarcastically, smirking.
He laughs at the joke, and they carry on their conversation until Peter's phone rings.
He pulls it out of his pocket and glances at before motioning to Gwen that he's going to step outside with the call.
As he walks out of the break room, he disables the alarm he'd set earlier. He holds it up to his ear, as if he's answering a call, but once he rounds the corner, he shoves it back into his pocket and makes his way back to the spider lab as quickly as possible.
He checks to make sure that no one is around, or watching him, and then he walks as casually up to the door as possible. Peter isn't sure what he's expecting, but once he slides the combination into place he's relieved that the lock clicks softly, and he's able to push the door open.
Slowly entering the lab, he checks to make sure there aren't any other employees working and, once deciding he's in the clear, he approaches the intricate webbing in the center of the room. He can hear his heart pounding in his chest, and the rhythmic beat of it reminds him of when the rain on his roof on stormy nights. Peter tries to control the nervous shaking of his hands, and breathes as slowly and deeply as possible, while pulling the small bottle out of his pocket.
It's small enough to hide inconspicuously in his jeans' pockets, and it's perforated at the top for air. He unscrews the top, and holds it up to the webbing, allowing two of the spiders to slip inside, before quickly screwing the lid back on.
Once the young scientist is sure he has what he needs, and has the spiders safely tucked inside his pocket, he leaves the lab cautiously. He feels too weird about going back to the party with two genetically modified spiders stashed in his pocket, so Peter grabs his messenger bag and skateboard from the locker room, and tries to sneak away.
"Where are you going?" Comes that same voice cheerfully curious voice from behind him.
"Hey, Gwen," he starts, trying to formulate a lie. "That call was from my dad. I guess, a uh, water pipe broke, or something like that. So I kind of have to go, um, home, and help fix up some things. Move stuff in the basement, and you know, um, help out," he finishes weakly. He hopes she'll just accept it, and let him leave.
"Oh, okay. Well, good luck with that, then. I guess I'll see you when school starts," she says before turning on her heel and walking briskly back to the party.
Peter can sense that she didn't totally believe him, and thinks she might even be a little irritated with him. He's confused by that, too, since she's never really been interested in his whereabouts or personal life before. As she walks away, not looking back, he snaps a quick picture with the camera he's had around his neck since the party.
While the subway ride home is uneventful, he still feels weird about having the two spiders hidden in his pocket. He keeps waiting for something to go wrong; for some small disaster to occur, in which he loses the spiders. Instead, he arrives at his stop, safe and sound.
When he gets off the train, and walks up the stairs and out onto the street. Being August in New York, it's sweltering hot, and it's so humid it feels like rain is hanging stagnantly in the air around him. He's actually pretty sure the walk back to his house might kill him, but he knows if Uncle Ben were here he'd probably tell him to stop complaining, it isn't that bad.
With his skateboard, he's able to get home pretty quickly, especially since the new house is a few block closer to the city, and his school; he's glad he'll be able to get home quicker on the bad weather days that are sure to come in fall and winter. As he approaches the house, he sees Tony at the front of the small lawn, pulling the mail out of the old-fashioned box; it's printed like an American flag, which Tony picked out with Peter at a home-improvement store as some kind of joke for Steve. Peter doesn't get the inside joke, but it made Steve laugh, blush, and scowl when he saw it.
When Tony hears the wheels of Peter's skateboard, he glances up and shoots his son a big smile.
"Hey, Spider-boy," he teases. "You're home early; did the party go okay?"
Peter throws him a mock-glare for the nickname.
"Uh yeah, I just wanted to get home. I got the things Papa had mentioned he needed, so I kinda just wanted to get outta there."
The older man hesitates for a minute, before he gets what his son means.
"Oh! You mean the oh," he says with realization. "Okay, let's get inside then."
They walk up the path quickly, and when they get inside Peter is relieved to feel the cool blast of the air conditioning. He sets his messenger bag down by the bottom of the stairs, and kicks his shoes off next to it.
"Hey, Spangles!" Tony calls out. "Can you get down here?"
"Oh my god, Tony!" He yells back as he comes down the stairs. "That was one time! We didn't have anything else."
"Whatever you say," he eggs him on, earning a warning glare from the blonde.
Peter just watches them, unsure of what they're even talking about, but he thinks it's probably related to the mailbox. He pulls the small jar out of his pocket and clears his throat, interrupting the silent argument the two seem to be having. When Tony remembers why he called his husband down to begin with, he gets excited.
"Oh yeah!" He exclaims. "Peter got the spider!"
Steve perks up at the news, and turns to Peter.
"Can I see?" He asks, putting his hand out to take the jar from his son.
"Yeah," Peter says, handing him the spiders. "I actually got two, I didn't know if that might be helpful. Also, I thought I'd fill you in on their lab, and how their webs are set up. I'm not sure if it's relevant to their survival."
"Yeah, actually," Steve agrees, "I'm glad you got two. And we'll try to recreate that environment, just in case, until I have a better understanding of their physiology."
"Okay great. Hopefully you can figure out what's going on with me," he says, glancing down at the small spider bite that still hadn't healed.
"Yeah, let's go down to the lab now, get these guys set up," he starts to walk to the basement door, grimacing at the sight of the two spiders in the jar. "I'm still not their biggest fan, though," he adds with a laugh.
"Yeah, trust me, I'm not either," he motions to the ever-present bump on his hand.
"Oh well I, for one, love spiders," Tony interjects.
"You do not," Steve calls him on it. "You're just trying to be contradictory."
He leans down to give the shorter man a kiss on the lips to let him know he's not actually mad at him, and shakes the jar next to his face, effectively causing him to jump.
The three make their way down to the basement, which Tony had renovated for the two of them to work in. The lab area is currently set up for Steve to run tests in, so much of the equipment Tony had ordered for himself is still in boxes; he does have a small are set up with his computers, though.
Straight away Peter starts explaining the complicated framework and the eerie glow, which Steve assumes is a black light. They get the temperature of the lab down to the cool, dry climate of the spider lab at OsCorp, even though it's a little chilly for them.
While Steve and Peter are reorganizing and prepping for blood work and genetic tests, Tony gets the computers up and running, and works on modifying some of the codes. All of a sudden he gets an excited look on his face, and starts typing away at something rapidly.
"I wonder if I can finish," he mutters to himself. "I just had a few more tweaks to make," the genius trails off. "Ah-hah!" He exclaims suddenly, finishing up a few sequences.
"What're you 'ah-hah'-ing at?" Steve questions him, examining his face closely.
"JARVIS," he states matter-of-factly.
"Jarvis?" Peter is confused, "who's he?"
"JARVIS," Tony explains, writing the acronym on a white-board, "is an AI I was working on a long time ago. He was nearly complete, when we had to leave. Over the years, I've managed to add and fix up a little bit at a time, but I've neglected him in recent years. I was just hoping now, that he might be able to help you. He can run tests, diagnostics, scans, hypotheticals, equations, everything. I just have to get some equipment set up for him."
"What's his name stand for?"
Steve laughs when he remembers. "Just A Really Very Intelligent System," he adds for Tony. "He named him after the butler he had growing up."
Peter looks at his dad skeptically. "You had a butler?"
"Hey," Tony defends. "My dad was a wealthy man. A busy, wealthy man. Jarvis was more like my dad in most respects."
"Oh. Well then I'm glad we have him on board now," Peter laughs.
"Glad to hear it, Mr. Parker," comes a distinctly British voice from the computer speaker.
Peter and Steve both look surprised, but Tony is beaming.
"And we're glad to hear you can hear us!" He says excitedly. "Pretty soon, I'll have him wired throughout the house."
While Tony keeps working on getting the computers set up and JARVIS's systems all online, Steve and Peter go back to getting ready to run some basic tests. They start with taking a small amount of Peter's blood, as well as some blood from the spider, and some venom. It seems incredible that they even have needles small enough to do so, but Steve is able to work with ease.
Tony helps them with the new equipment, and allows JARVIS to run the genetic tests.
"Why don't we go upstairs and get dinner ready?" Tony asks. "I'm starving."
"You are not starving, Tony. We had lunch a few hours ago," he shakes his head, laughing.
"Yeah, so? Let's order a pizza," he pulls out his phone to call it in before Steve can even object. "Oh, and JARVIS?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Can you let us know when you find anything interesting, or when a test series is complete?"
"Of course, sir. Would you also like me to order dinner? I can save all of your preferences."
"That'd be great, J, thanks," Tony grins. "Call that little Italian place on the corner by the market. Get a cheese with pineapple for me," Steve pulls a face at that one, "and a pepperoni for Steve and Petey."
"Right away, sir."
"How does he know what place that is?" Steve asks. "That couldn't have been vaguer."
"He's an extension of me; he just knows," Tony winks at his husband, and leaves it at that.
The small family watches Jeopardy while they wait for the pizza to arrive, and eat their pizza on the couch. They're just waiting on JARVIS to finish the tests. About half-way through Wheel of Fortune, the AI system mutes the television, much to Steve's surprise.
"Sirs, you may want to come down now. There's something of interest in the blood work of Mr. Parker."
