Peter woke up feeling more tired than when he went to bed. It had been exactly one month since they escaped the Compound. His joints ached and creaked as he tried to roll himself out of bed, but only managed to fall off with a thump. Sighing in acceptance, he pulled some blankets down and covered his whole body, laying face down on the floor. That's how Natasha found him hours later.

It was ten. Usually at least one team member would see the kid way earlier than that. It wasn't uncommon for Peter to be the first one awake and in the kitchen or living room. Today, though, no one had seen or heard the kid at all. Steve and Sam didn't think anything of it when they took off on their morning run, but became slightly more concerned when he still wasn't around when they returned. Bucky was just as confused, but they all decided that if the kid wanted to sleep in a little bit, it was perfectly alright. Then seven rolled around and brought Natasha and Bruce, one around twenty minutes before the other, and then Tony stumbled to the kitchen around eight. Clint wandered in about forty-five minutes later to grab his coffee. Steve made some pancakes, well, a shit ton of pancakes, for the team, and Peter somewhat slipped their minds until it was nearly ten and the fact was brought up by none other than Sam.

"Where's the Spider-twerp? I haven't seen him today," Sam asked casually, putting another piece of pancake in his mouth. Everyone looked at each other and made various noises of 'I dunno'. Ten came around and it was decided that someone should check on the kid, but Natasha was already on her feet, her flats silent against the tile as she walked to the kid's room. She knocked, of course, and gave it a minute before she opened the door, which wasn't locked. They had taken the locks off of the kid's doors ever since the incident a few weeks back.

"Kid? You in here," Natasha said softly, poking her head in as she opened the door slowly. She saw a brown tuft of hair sticking out of a haphazardly placed blanket which was half on the floor, half on the bed, forming a tent draped over a form. "You alive under there," Natasha asked in a slightly joking manner, but a twinge of worry gripped her heart. She let out a silent breath of relief when the lump gave a soft mumble, muffled by the blanket. Natasha gave a soft smile and crouched down, pulling the blanket back from the kid's head. He had his face pressed against the floor, and would have been staring at it if his eyes weren't closed.

"Whacha doin'?" Peter gave a muffled response before turning his face towards Natasha, whose smile became sad when she saw the bloodshot, puffy eyes of a kid who had been crying too much.

"Did you quote Phineas and Ferb?"

"Of course, you are a kid aren't you? A builder of sorts?" Peter gave a little nod, sighing and closing his eyes again with a soft groan. "Why are you on the floor, hiding under a blanket?"

"I tried getting up, but gravity said no," Peter mumbled and Natasha gave the kid a smile, sitting down next to him, back leaning against the side table.

"I see that. How long you been down here?"

"I dunno, what time is it?"

"Around ten, we were all worried about you." Peter looked at Natasha, eyes shining with apologies and she felt her heart clench in sympathy, but also anger at whoever broke this kid so badly.

"About five hours. It felt like longer."

"I get that Peter, I do. Can you do me a favor?" Peter hummed in response, eyes closing.

"Can you try to get up so we can go get something to eat? Cap made pancakes."

" 'm not hungry," Peter mumbled, his stomach choosing that moment to growl loudly. Natasha smirk.

"I think you're stomach disagrees. Come on Pete, time to get up." With that Natasha threw back the blanket and helped Peter to his feet. He swayed a bit before he slowly followed behind Natasha, head down, hood up, and hands shoved in his hoodie pocket. While Natasha moved with complete silence, Peter's feet shuffled along, socks sliding gently along the floor.

"Found him," Natasha said, pointing back at Peter, who shuffled his way in and sat in an empty chair at the table. A pile of pancakes was placed in front of him and he picked up the fork near him, but just pushed the food around, occasionally taking a small bite of a piece he cut off. He stared at his food, but he could feel the others looking at him. It was about fifteen minutes of staring and of him pushing around his food that he threw down his fork and stood up, his chair squeaking as it was shoved back.

"What are you guys looking at," Peter hissed angrily. He wasn't quite sure why he was so mad, but he just felt so angry, and felt terrible for exploding on the Avengers, but he couldn't stop himself.

"We're just worried about you kid, we-"

"Worried about me? You are worried about me? That's wonderful, just great, marvelous." Peter twitched his nose, which probably made him looked like a slightly angry rabbit, and he was probably about as intimidating as one currently, but he was so furious that he didn't care.

"Kid, please, just calm down."

"Calm down? I'm calm, perfectly a-okay! I mean, it's not like I was missing for a month before you people found me, without trying. It was about six weeks before we got out, right? Six weeks! Tell me one thing, did any of you notice I was missing? Huh, anyone, besides Tony who I guess gave up after a couple weeks." No one knew how to react.

"Look, Peter, I didn't want to stop looking, but an urgent matter came up and-"

"And what Tony?! You just forgot about the kid who you dragged into all this shit whose only family died and who was missing for two weeks without a trace? Makes sense I guess."

"What makes sense kid?"

"Forgetting about me, some random nerd from Queens who has more bullies than friends, who is 'just a kid' who needs a tracker in their suit, as well as a 'Training Wheels Protocol' and a suit that records everything whenever I put the mask on. Some kid who you invited to Germany to fight half of your team, but then you dropped back off at his apartment without a word for weeks until some big baddie selling alien tech decides to drown me in a lake. Then, you don't talk to me again and then take back the suit while lecturing me about being irresponsible and telling me to let the authorities handle it when, guess what, you never told me about the FBI being a part of it! I saved your ass after you took the suit, nearly dying a few times thank you very much, and what do I get, an invitation to join the Avengers, which you told me before the whole Vulture thing wasn't even within my reach any time soon. After I turned you down, what happens? Oh yeah, I get ignored again. I almost forgot about that since it happened so often," Peter ranted, the words spewing from his mouth even though he was trying to stop.

"I called you, texted you, hell I swung by a few times, but I got nothing but told to scram or you'd smack me with a flyswatter, or tell people who I was under the mask. Did you even realize I stopped popping by after you threatened to tell people who I was? I bet not, who remembers the kid who thought that maybe someone other than his aunt and two friends cared about him at least somewhat. You know Tony, I looked up to you, I really did. I wanted to be like you, you told me to be better. I think I did pretty good, don't you? I mean, I lost everything in the process, but I did it, I saved people, and that's what counts right? It doesn't matter who I lose, what I lose, as long as everyone else is okay. You didn't even know May died until I was gone did you? I know you didn't because I called you, asking if we could talk. I left messages telling you what happened. I was gone before you started caring." Tony's face was blank, but his jaw was clenched so tight he might break some teeth. The rest of the group was either staring at Tony in anger, or Peter in shock.

"Kid-"

"No! You don't get to 'kid' me! I only matter when it's important for you! You needed help in Germany, so I was dragged in. You needed me out of your hair so you gave me the suit and told me to scram, and then told me to stay down when you took it away. I told you Aunt May knew about Spider-man, but you shrugged and waved me away. I wasn't necessary after saving your ass with the plane, so I never got a response. You needed me, and then tossed me when I wasn't of use to you. I get that, I know what it looks like, I've dealt with that shit before.

I mean, I grew up with shitty people who I don't even want to call my parents, who abandoned me at six on my Aunt and Uncle's doorstep. Then I had to somehow learn to be a normal child, make friends, go to school, which I did. I had friends, I made friends, but then middle school happened. And now High School, and suddenly I have two friends, one who I'm not even sure really is a friend, and more than two people who hate my guts.

My uncle died and you know what, I was so angry because it was my fault. I almost killed the guy who shot him, but I didn't. Save people right? Avenge people? Isn't that what you all do? Avenge? You know what happened? He got out on probation, not sure how, and ended up killing three more people in an armed robbery before committing suicide by cop. Guess when this was. Germany. I learned about it when I got back and my Aunt was staring at the TV playing the news report on it. I lost one of the only people I could trust, and because I decided to be a good guy and let him live, three more people were lost to their families. I don't know where I'm going with this anymore, but I've lost so much, and no one noticed.

I've dealt with shit before, alone, because no one knew who I was. Now, there's only one person on Earth who knows who I am that I trust that isn't dead. I don't think he noticed I was gone either. I vanished off the face of the Earth, and not a single person was looking for me, not one, at least, not for a very long time. Then, purely because I wouldn't break, you guys were lured into the Corporation's clutches just so they could break me. So really, if I would've broken sooner, you never would have been any the wiser as to where Spider-man went. Is he dead? Is he hiding? Did he move away? What happened to your friendly neighborhood Spider-man? He was dead the second his aunt was." Peter spat the final sentence and proceeded to walk back to his room, slamming the door hard enough that cracks ran up the wall.

"What the fuck Tony," Steve said through gritted teeth, keeping himself from lunging at the man, but only barely. Those who didn't know about Steve's foul mouth looked at the man in shock, but couldn't blame him.

"I know I ignored the kid."

"We know you ignored him Tony, but did you even think about the consequences your actions could have, not just physically? I mean emotionally and mentally. Did you think about how ignoring a kid who had been abandoned by various people he trusts could potentially hurt him? Did you know anything about the kid before you dragged him in? Did you know about his parents?"

"I don't know anything more than what I gathered from random intel. I knew he lived with his aunt, and I knew his uncle had died, and I knew where he went to school and I managed to put together he was Spider-man, but I never delved deeper than that."

"For fuckssake Tony! You didn't know anything about the kid before you dragged him into a war," Sam shouted. Tony was trying to keep it together, but he was having trouble. He knew he fucked up, big time, and he wished that he had a time machine to go back and fix everything. He knew he needed to fix everything, but he wasn't sure how.

"Look I know alright! I know I fucked up! I know that what I did was shitty! I know I should have paid attention to the kid. I know all these things, okay. I realize I was an asshole, and I still am an asshole, but I'm trying to help the kid. I'm trying to make it up to him."

"You're trying to fix a broken kid to make up for breaking him?" Tony gritted his teeth and felt his chest pang with anger at himself.

"I know I hurt him when he was hurting, but I never knew, I never thought that a kid who had so much energy, and who always looked so innocent and happy, who was always bouncing around, excited, whenever he saw something he liked, could have so much pain below the surface."

"You know what they say Tony," Natasha said, scolding the man. She was angry at him, pissed actually, but she could see that Tony was close to breaking down himself, and that he loathed himself for being the way he was.

"What's that," the billionaire responded quietly.

"The loneliest are often the kindest, the saddest smile the brightest, and the most damaged are the wisest. All because he didn't want anyone to worry, or feel the same way." Tony buried his face in his hands.

"I royally screwed the pooch."

"Got that right asshole."