A/N: Hi... It's been a while since I last updated this... But I'm finally back.

For a while, I've just been away from writing fanfiction in general due to some issues that have come up in my life. But I just couldn't abandon this without finishing it, so here I am.
I have some good news, though. I've set up an update schedule for fanfiction so that I keep writing every day, so I'll try and update this story every Monday.

Without further ado, here's a long-awaited chapter.

Chapter 7: A Teenage Angst

At first, they thought he was just intimidated. And they understood ― or at least, they tried their best to do so. They were already quite familiar with how people usually viewed them. Regardless of how much they would always emphasize the fact that they too were human beings that were in no way near being flawless, it was also true that they had experiences that not a lot of others on the entire planet would in their lifetime.

People called them superheroes. They showed them respect, awe, and many times, gratitude. But among all the reactions, the one that they received the most was fear; fear of what they are capable of. Fear of the reality that they had shown the rest of the world. Most of the general public didn't even realize that they held such emotion within them, but it showed in different signs and gestures.

Thus, it wasn't hard for the members of Avengers to think that Peter was having a hard time approaching them. After all, he was only a teenager and the only teenager to join the group. He had the least amount of experience in the world-saving business. Most importantly, he had just suddenly been thrown into a band of fully grown, full-time agents without being given a chance to really consider and make a full decision of his own will. He probably needed some time to figure everything out. And that was the reason the team wanted to give the boy some space to take his time and get used to everything.

That was until Tony Stark moved to New York.

After the Chitauri invasion in the city, Tony decided to devote his Stark Tower to the Avengers Initiative, turning the facility into the base of operation for the team. Still, he was residing on the other side of the country, which meant he was rarely in New York City in person. This also meant that Bruce Banner was the only one of the entire team to really interact with Peter since all the others were also occupied with their own missions and work. Bruce, being the quietest and an introverted scientist, was never the one to cross the line. If anything, he and Peter were like birds of a feather. The two of them could spend hours and hours sharing ideas and coming up with theories to prove but also work in silence and keep quiet about all the personal stories. For Peter, it was like the time when he worked with Doctor Connors ― well, before he turned into that giant lizard-thing.

Tony, on the other hand, was basically the one to get on everyone's nerves.

"For the last time," Peter said, trying to contain the exasperation that was surging within him for the sake of being polite. "I don't need an upgrade to my suit."

"You definitely need an upgrade to your suit," Tony argued, although it sounded too casual to be an 'argument' as if he was stating a fact. "It's just a piece of spandex."

"Which I've been doing fine in, thank you," Peter retorted. "Really, I appreciate that you're concerned about me, but it's not necessary."

Tony was not convinced in the least bit.

"Just because you've been surviving in that doesn't mean you should be," he said. "No, you've not been even surviving in that piece of crap. I saw what that lizard thing did to you. YOu could not have come out of it uninjured."

Peter didn't have an answer to give to it. Still, he did his best to refute.

"Well, I didn't die, did I?"

"Seriously?" Now Tony seemed exasperated. "Do you have any sense of self-preservation?"

"Of course!" Peter said. "If I didn't, how do you think I'm standing here right now?"

"As much as I don't want to intervene in what you do or how you do it," Bruce joined in, "I don't think that is a healthy attitude, Peter."

Peter sighed.

"I really appreciate your concerns. I do. But I'm doing fine on my own. I always have," he said. He didn't give the two adults a chance to add anything to the conversation as he checked his phone just to make an excuse to get himself out of the situation. "Well, I gotta go. Got some grocery shopping, homework, and patrol to do."

He hurriedly picked up the backpack from the corner of the lab and walked out through the door. Tony and Bruce could only watch him go.

"I'm so making him a new suit," Tony muttered as he crossed his arms.

"Well, good luck with that," Bruce mumbled.

And that was the notorious Parker luck, right there.

Three boys blocked his view. Peter sighed to himself and looked at the face of the boy smirking at him. He was just about to make it out of the building without getting noticed by his bullies. The irritating part was that Peter had already seen them coming. He just couldn't do anything about it other than to let them think that they got the better of him and caught him by surprise. That was one of the "perks" of having superpowers and having to hide them, pretending to be "Puny Parker".

The boy standing in the middle yanked the pair of headphones that was covering Peter's ears.

"What you got there, Parker?"

It was Marcus from the football team. Originally, he was one of the followers of Flash back when Flash was Peter's arch-bully. That was until Flash lost interest in making Peter's school life miserable ― in fact, he had actually become a bit… friendly, to Peter's surprise. Thus, Peter once thought that maybe things could be better for a change. That was until Marcus decided to take the matters into his own hands.

And there he was, holding Peter's brand-new headphones in his hands and examining them with a sneer. Once he did so, however, he raised his eyebrows and whistled. Clearly, it was something that he did not expect to find in Peter's possession. Peter himself understood why as well: those were one of the most recently released editions with the best noise-canceling functions. They helped him tone down his heightened hearing at least a little when he wanted to simply shut everything out. Normally, he would definitely not have been able to afford them were it not for the income he was now getting from his "internship" under Tony Stark.

"What the fuck?" said Marcus. He was still sniggering, but there was a sense of surprise and a bit of mock respect in his tone. "Where did you get this?"

"Give 'em back," Peter said in a resigned tone.

"Like, can you even afford this?" Marcus held it in front of Peter's eyes in a clearly mocking and taunting way. "Where did you steal this, huh?"

"Hell, I didn't think you had the balls, Parker," Brian said from behind Marcus.

Peter reached out to take his headphones back. But he knew that Marcus was going to pull it away from him, of course. He also knew that he could just overpower the likes of Marcus and his gangs and take his headphones back. He was almost tempted to as well. He was getting tired of playing the role of a powerless nerd. Then again, he just didn't really have a choice but to continue his act.

"You know, this reminds me," Marcus said. "I actually need a new pair of headphones myself."

Peter sighed. He didn't need his superpowers to know where this was going.

"That's not my problem," he said. "Just give them back. I have to go."

As much as he was eager to get out of the situation, he wasn't lying. He was on his way to the Stark lab for his usual work hours. And he wanted to go there as soon as he could so that he would be able to stop or at least interrupt any and all schemes Tony was coming up with to modify his spider suits.

"You wanna go?" Marcus said. "Then this is your toll. Hand them over and you can leave."

"It's not funny. Just give them back," Peter said. Irritation was building up by the second.

"Oh, you think I'm joking?" Marcus smirked. His eyes were glaring dangerously. Yet, it didn't intimidate Peter anymore.

"Why don't you give them back?"

The three boys and Peter all turned their heads toward a familiar voice.

Flash was standing behind Marcus and his friends.

Marcus scoffed.

"Why?" He snarked. "What's it to you?"

"Just give it back to him," Flash said with a rather serious face and voice.

Marcus looked at Peter before he looked at Flash again.

"So you've decided to side with Parker now? Hm? What's he has on you? Is he sucking your dick for you or something?"

Brian and the other boy, Jason, sniggered and whistled. Marcus joined and laughed as well.

Flash sighed shortly and shook his head.

"It's not funny anymore, Marcus, just stop."

Marcus stopped sniggering and glared at Flash.

"You try to teach me, Thompson?" He said. "You tell me what to do?"

He turned to Brian and Jason.

"Who was it that started this, agian?" He then turned back to Flash. "And now you try to play saint all of a sudden?"

"I just grew out of it," Flash said. He looked straight into Marcus's eyes. "And maybe you should, too."

Marcus stood still for a moment. Then he threw Peter's headphones on the ground and stomped his foot on it. With a large crash, the headphones smashed into pieces. Peter couldn't help and winced.

Well, there goes my month's worth of pay.

Marcus didn't say a word or even spare a glance at Peter as if he had completely forgotten about him. Then he just walked away from Peter toward Flash, bumped into him hard, and went past him. Brian and Jason followed him and the three of them furthered away. It left Peter alone with Flash in awkward silence.

Flash eyed Peter uneasily. Peter avoided his eyes and picked up his headphones from the floor ― or what was left of it.

"Sorry about that," Flash said after Peter straightened himself up.

Peter shook his head.

"Don't worry about it," he said. he paused a little before he added, "And, um… thanks."

Flash laughed nervously. "Yeah uh… don't mention it."

Both Peter and Flash stood awkwardly. Peter couldn't bear the uncomfortable feeling. So he didn't give Flash another glance as he quickly passed by him toward the school door.

Natasha listened to Tony's words with an unimpressed look on her face. She was sitting on a chair at a large table in the lab, leaning on the table and casually sipping her coffee. Bruce was also in the lab, looking at some holographic charts that floated around him.

"I'm getting a feeling that he's trying to avoid us," Tony concluded. He drummed his spanner into his palm.

Natasha kept her face devoid of any emotions.

"And I'm not the only one thinking that, right Bruce?"

At Tony's abrupt diverting of attention, Bruce flinched before he nodded.

Natasha looked at both men. She put down the cup on the table in front of her.

"You haven't read his files, have you?" she asked.

Tony blinked at her. Clearly, he didn't have any idea what she was getting at.

"Of course I did," he said. "Or do you think that I just let Fury make me hire a stubborn and egotistical teenager without doing a background check?"

"And you still have no idea why he's avoiding you?"

"Well, the files didn't exactly include his diaries. How am I supposed to know why he's doing what?"

Natasha shrugged.

"No wonder he'd avoid you," she said. She put down her cup and straightened herself. "He probably decided that he couldn't have an intelligent conversation with you."

"You're calling a man who graduated from MIT at 14 a dumbass?" Tony said.

"It only shows that school diplomas don't mean anything," she retorted. "If you're so intelligent as you claim, then you should have figured out why he's not trying to associate with you."

Tony raised his eyebrows sarcastically.

"Why don't you elaborate it, then?"

Natasha gave him a deadpanning look.

"His parents passed away when he was seven. He then lived with his aunt and uncle until he lost his uncle to a robber. He has no siblings or cousins of his age, and he has a long history of being bullied. What do you think that it tells you about the kid?"

Tony looked at Bruce as if he was asking him for an answer.

"It means that he most likely have had a solitary life. It would have been even more so after he assumed his identity as Spider-Man. He's used to being alone."

Tony pursed his lips. Realization dawned on Bruce's face. Natasha raised her eyebrows as if she was asking for their answer.

"So basically he has some kind of teenage angst," Tony said. "He just wants to be alone, getting all broody."

"More like he doesn't know how to work with others," answered Natasha.

"Then why did he accept to be in Avengers?" Bruce questioned.

"Because he didn't have a choice in the first place," said Natasha. She crossed her arms. "He was out on his own. SHIELD had to identify if he was going to be a threat or an ally. It was either joining the Avengers Initiative or be marked as a potential risk and be put under close surveillance."

"Sounds like something Fury would do," Tony commented.

Natasha raised her eyebrows at him. Tony, however, seemed to ignore it. Bruce, on the other hand, looked confused.

"But why have him in Avengers?" He asked. "If all SHIELD needed was to clarify his intention, they could have just put him in the system for his identification."

"It was Parker's own request not to have his identity revealed," replied Natasha. "It was his condition of joining Avengers. Avengers Initiative, on the official term, is dormant. That's why SHIELD is letting Fury direct it on his own. Fury agreed to it in order to include Parker in the initiative without having SHIELD find out about him. He also thought Parker's identity should remain covert."

"And why's that?" Tony asked.

Natasha hesitated for the first time. Her expression was still calm and unaffected as usual, but it took her a short moment of pause before she answered.

"That's classified for now," she said.

Tony narrowed his eyes at her as if he was about to pry. Yet, surprisingly, he didn't.

"So the bottom line is that he needs to feel welcomed in the team, is that what you're saying?" Tony said instead.

"More like 'comfortable' than 'welcomed'," Bruce corrected.

Natasha shrugged.

"I'm not suggesting anything. I'm just answering your question," she retorted.

Tony pondered for a moment. He paced around the lab, tapping his philtrum with his finger. Natasha picked up her cup again and drank some more coffee.

Suddenly, Tony whipped around and looked at her.

"You said that Rogers's also going to be in town in a few days?"

Natasha didn't answer. She just kept drinking her coffee. The lack of denial was a sufficient answer for Tony.

"How about we do a team dinner? Tell Barton to come over as well. It's been a while since we last had one of those," he said. "When exactly was that again?"

"About four, five months ago," Bruce answered, "when Fury introduced him."

"Has it been that long?" Tony gasped dramatically. "Alright, we're doing this. How about… Friday night? Is that okay with everyone?"

"I guess so," said Bruce, shrugging his shoulders.

Natasha just sipped her coffee again.

"Then I'm gonna text the kid before I forget." Tony pulled out his cell phone and quickly typed something into it. Bruce kept working on his own thing while Natasha watched Tony. After Tony pressed a button, he looked up again. "All set."

"Do you think he'll come, though?" Bruce asked. "If what Agent Romanov says is the case, he might just try to back out of it, too."

Tony smirked. It was a clear sign that he had some scheme in mind.

"I might be able to remedy that."

A/N: Thank you so much for reading this!

And for those of you who have been waiting for this, thank you so much for being patient as well.

Please feel free to leave comments, fav & follow!

I hope everyone stays safe and has a wonderful day, wherever you are!

Best, Lisa :)