Chapter 25: Spider Baby

Nat was brooding by herself in one of Clint's many nests in the tower vents. Tony had them made so he could fit through them and he used particularly large spots to stuff blankets and pillows with junk food. Beside herself and Clint the only would who ever dared to use the vents was Peter so she wasn't surprised when she saw him approach. Natasha was fond of the little spider but she wasn't in the mood to talk. He sensed that and immediately backed off.

Pietro and Clint were playing video games while Wanda was cooking some Sokovian food. Then Peter popped out of the vent above the couch and landed perched behind them, his legs in a crouch and arms holding onto the couch between them.

"Clint I think something's wrong with Tasha."

There was an immediate response. He climbed into the vent and Peter took his spot on the couch grabbing his gaming remote resuming the game. Wanda just chuckled and continued cooking.

"Tash what's up?" Clint said as he climbed into the pile of pillows next to her. She didn't respond. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her closer kissing her head.

She sighed, "Just seeing you with the twins. Reminds me what I can't give you."

"You give me everything I need."

She shoved him, "You're so cheesy. You know what I mean."

"C'mon Tash. The twins love you."

"No. They tolerate me because they love you. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, since Laura brought it up when we went to see her during the Ultron debacle. I want a kid Clint, badly. Seeing you with Pietro and Wanda, or Tony and Pepper with Harley doesn't help. Neither does having Peter around."

"To be honest I want one to. We both know we can't do it the natural way, so how are we going to do this?"

She looked up and smiled, "We can get a surrogate. Or we can adopt."

"Adopt. We both know what it's like not to have a family. Let's try to give a kid one."

"Adopt. You think we can find some help to arrange it?"

"Ask Pepper. She should know."

"She did tell me about a discreet law firm that helped when they adopted Harley. Nelson and Murdock I think it was."

"We'll have a Baby Spider on our hands soon."

"We already have one of those. A Baby Hawk."

"We'll figure this out later. The kids are making dinner for us."

"Your kids?"

"I think it's our kids."

After that night the twins became a lot closer with Nat. She spent a lot of time training with Wanda and giving her a listening ear for all the girl troubles she had (Vision and Pietro were constant topics). Pietro didn't need to learn to sneak around to set up his pranks but Nat taught him to lie. Soon it was clear to everyone that Nat had become a Mommy Spider and Clint a daddy Hawk.

Thursday night was group dinner night. It was the one night they all assembled together to eat dinner (though they all spent plenty of time together anyway in mix and matched groups). Peter had stayed because it was late and Aunt May had a night shift. Steve, Wanda, Darcy and Clint had cooked. They were arguably the best at cooking in the tower. So as they dug into the food and conversation started at the table. It was almost impossible to hear anything but everything stopped when Peter and Pietro got into an arguement.

"Yeah, like you would win in a fight against me. I have super speed."

"Let me tell you something. If we were in a fight there would be good news and bad news. Good News? You'd be on the front page. Bad news? It'd be a picture of me beating the daylights out of you."

Everyone heard and erupted into laughter. Harley was still trying to catch his breath and hid his face in Pepper's shoulder to muffle his giggling when Clint spoke up.

"We sure Peter isn't Tony's love child? Or his clone? How many snarky genius superheroes are there?"

Tony guffawed and Peter turned red. Then Tony said, "C'mon, if Peter's anyone's secret child it's Nat's. He's a sneaky baby spider who can get past anything, can turn from awesome nice to scary. He trains with her, can do splits no man can, and has an acrobatic fighting style. He even uses the vents!"

Everyone almost conceded to that. Natasha had taken a liking to Peter. She did start training him after noticing their similiar styles of fighting and found him to be charming. She and Clint had pretty much claimed him and the twins as their kids. The issue was almost everyone fought over Peter more about that later.

But Clint was right too, Peter had Tony's genius and snark. Sometimes he even had the ego. The two got on in ways that Tony only ever got along with Harley. He wasn't connected but he was almost there.

Nat smirked at Tony's comment. Everyone else was trying to hold in their laughter at Peter's face which looked like he was wearing his mask it was so read. Then the Widow spoke, "C'mon. Peter's obviously Caps. Or at least his Grandchild. He has Cap's sense of justice and his leadership skills. He uses the Shield well, or he did that time Cap threw it at him and he caught and kept it hostage for the rest of practice. Cap was almost worthy and Peter was. Plus, Peter has superstrength."

"But you also have superserum Tash. In fact I'm pretty sure that there's a logical answer for this. He's all of theirs. They've been cheating on us with Steve," Clint said to Pepper jokingly snarling Steve's name.

"Sounds about right," Pepper agreed.

Steve and Tony choked on their food. Nat just smirked like she found this amusing. Peter was still red but openly laughing now.

"So Peter's my older brother? Cool!"

"You'd be a good little bro. I don't think I mind that title," Peter laughed. "As long as none of this is mentioned in front of Aunt May."

Everyone in the Tower, besides Harley, considered Peter their Spider baby. Darcy and Wanda considered him a new adorable little brother, they watched TV marathons with him, teased him, and mother henned him (not to the extent of Natasha and Pepper. Pietro was Peter's bro, a protective big brother role was included in that, but mostly they pranked others, did other teenage boy things like played video games, ate junk food, marathoned movies, wrestled and made stupid jokes. Pietro often went on patrol with Peter as well. Vision and Peter had no real large relationship, besides working in the lab together.

Harley's relationship with Peter hadn't changed much. He still idolized the older boy, who sometimes took him on rides swinging over the city. (It wasn't like Tony didn't take him flying secretly). They worked together in the lab, did puzzles together, played pranks, joked, fake wrestled, had tickle fights, argued and acted like brothers.

Sam liked the kid, he served as the team's therapist and realized that the death of Peter's parents and uncle ben were bigger issues than the kid let on. He was deeply concerned about the kid, so he kept an eye on Peter. He found the kid really amusing.

Rhodey liked the kid. A lot. First meeting him, Rhodey was immidiatley reminded of Tony when he first met the 16 year old Billionaire genius on MIT. Both had tragic pasts, though different backgrounds, had genius intellect and hid thier hurt behind their snark. Peter didn't hang out with Rhodey a lot but when he did, he and Harley listened intently to War Machine's latest story.

Jane thought Peter was a smart kid. He had a real future in the world of science, but their relationship in the lab was as far as it ever went. Thor liked the kid, he was worthy of holding Mjolnir meant that he was a great hero. Peter found Thor funny and helped him learn about the world. He took the job of showing Thor the real New York, distracting the Thunder god while Jane was in the lab. That was at least for the month after Ultron till Thor left to Asgard. The Avengers were on guard with the news that Loki was alived and had posed of the king of Asgard and the real one was missing. Thor went back to where he was needed and took care of his duties.

Bruce and Peter had pretty much the same relationship as Bruce and Harley. Bruce, the smart crazy scientist uncle, taught both boys about science and especially with Peter's interest in BioChem the two worked together well. The Hulk took to Peter like he took to noone, not even Tony. Everyone was confused by that but Hulk loved Bugman and would calm down as soon as he saw Peter, either to listen to Cap's commands and turn back into Bruce. Peter seemed to get something about the Hulk that no one else did.

Steve thought Peter had the makings of a hero. He didn't like the idea of the kid being out on the street but he knew none of them could stop him. The only thing they could do was to not let him officially join the Avengers team. He helped Nat train Peter seeing a lot of himself in the young man who had such a strong sense of justice. He was teaching Peter to handle his super strength better and had gotten closer to the kid through that. Peter often asked him about the war joking there weren't many veterans around any more. He was the only one that dared bring it up, even though he was sensitive to what Steve had lost, Peter knew rememberign was better than forgetting. He also saw Peter's leadership skills. He had a feeling the kid would end up leading his own team not far in the future.

Nat had become Peter's Momma Spider, she was tough but she seemed to love him all the same. Since he met the Avenger's it seemed he had so many more mothers than he should. Nat was the one that trained him. She taught Peter to sneak up on people, pick locks and tell a decent lie. She also went soft once and a while when Peter needed. She was Wanda and Pietro's mama spider to but somehow not as much as Peter's. He needed her more. She needed to protect his innocence as long as possible. Wanda and Pietro had little left, Peter however had lost and seen a lot but he had not lost that laughter or light on his eyes. He never would on her watch.

Clint thought Peter was the best thing ever. Or at least him, Natasha, Wanda and Pietro. And Coulson, when he was alive. The kid was witty, hilarious, and a great fighter. Clint had really bonded with Peter over their love of high places and shared sense of humor. The first time Clint went swinging with Peter on the way back to the tower from accompaning Spiderman on Patrol, he fell in love with the feeling. Now that he and Tasha had three "kids" Clint spent a lot of time with each of them. Most often with Pietro and Peter it was doing things like playing video games or planning a prank.

Pepper only got to know Peter really well after the Ultron debacle. Before that he was just Tony's intern who hung out around the lab. But after she realized how he had saved Harley and piccked up Thor's hammer to smash Ultron saving Tony too, she decided to get to know the kid. She took the time during her long vacation after Sokovia. Immidiatley she saw the potential in Peter, he was a smart kid, who acted a lot like Tony but at the same time not. It was like he was Harley but an older and different version. Honestly she was pretty sure both were Tony's biological kids. She often spent time with both boys, initiating a movie marathon for all the Avengers. (Peter either cuddled with her Tony and Harley or was jacked by one of the others, usually the twins or Natasha and Clint). All movies were screened by her beforehand, most people in the tower had a traumatic circumstance they couldn't stand to see brought up the movie (Like the Fox and the Hound for Steve which reminded him of Bucky). Pepper became the mom he could tell about his superhero activities, how he was afraid to ask out that girl in school in case she found out was Spiderman.

Tony had been the one, besides Harley, that Peter first felt connected too. The man didn't know he was Spiderman so he didn't care. He appreciated Peter's intelligence and snark, like only Aunt May and Uncle Ben had. Tony had wanted to help Peter get farther in life. When Peter's identity as Spiderman was revealed he still treated him the same. Just Tony treated him the same. The others saw him as something worth more, not that he minded, but still. Tony still only wanted to help Peter through his education, sometimes that meant experimenting with Spiderman's tools and costume. It was only Peter asked for his help as a hero that he was given it. Tony was the one Peter went to for just about everything. Most times they wouldn't talk, they would just work together in silence not needing words to communicate the science. Harley would join them often, somehow all three were able to work together in that strange silent way. (Reaffirming Pepper's and almost everyone else's joking theory they were actually related.)

Before the Avengers all Peter ever had (at least since he was 4) was Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Then it was just Aunt May, she was his everything. That was until he met Harley and therefore the Avengers. Now he had two new sets of parents (Tony, Pepper, Clint and Natasha) to accompany the first he had lost and dad (Uncle Ben). He had a new best friend and a younger brother figure. He had people who could help him with his powers, people that understood. He had a complete family, friends who were there.