A/N: If this sounds familiar it's because I reposted it from AO3.
Enjoy reading!
Packing of the Parker's apartment was meticulously planned by Pepper Potts. They were supposed to pack everything in labeled boxes and bring it to the Tower in a maximum of 3 days. The drivers employed by SI were going to take the packages to the Tower in the company's vans.
Tony was helping Peter pack his room, while Pepper, Nat and May chatted in the kitchen. The faint sound of their conversation carried to the teen's bedroom.
"I think I regret introducing May to Pepper and Nat," Tony grumbled. "They are perfectly capable of taking over the world and they scare me."
"They are currently talking about our last move, when the transport company stole the china set that Ben and May got for their wedding. Before they were talking about dresses. They are not going to take over the world."
"And how do you know that?"
Peter pointed at his ears. "Super hearing, duh."
"Freaky spider-kids." Tony shook his head, while dumping a pile of books into a box. "Why do you have so many books?"
"I like to read," Peter replied, taking another couple of volumes off the shelf. "Hey, be careful with that, it's Harry Potter!" he shouted at Tony, when he unceremoniously dumped tattered copies of the wizard's adventures.
"I can see that. Did you find them in the dumpster?"
"Ben bought them for me, I just reread them so many times and lent them to Ned, so they look very worn…"
"I'm sorry, kiddo, I didn't know they mean so much to you."
"It's okay. Have you ever read it?"
"Nope," Tony replied, popping the 'p'.
"Here." Peter handed him 'Philosopher's stone'. "Give it a chance."
"I can't take something that sentimental from you, Pete." Tony raised his hands in a defensive manner.
"Come on, unless you are going to burn them, everything's going to be fine, Ned dumped tomato sauce on 'Chamber of the secrets'." Peter shoved a book at Tony. He took it and opened it at the first page.
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much," he read aloud. His eyes moved to the next sentence and he sat down.
"Huh, it's actually interesting."
Peter continued packing books alone, while Tony started getting more and more engrossed by Harry's adventures. There were two full boxes that Peter closed with the tape and wrote 'Peter's room – books' on the lid. Then he took them to the living room where May, Nat and Pepper were talking with Steve.
"We've packed all the books."
"Oh, that's great, Steve just came to carry the boxes to the van."
"Oh, I'll help, it'll be faster!"
"Peter, I don't think-" May started.
"Super strength, remember?" Peter cut her off. "Come on." He grabbed one of the boxes on the floor and opened the apartment's door. Steve followed his suit and soon they were going down the staircase.
"You know, before the bite I had asthma. Living on the seventh floor, without a lift was a nightmare," Peter said conversationally.
Steve gave him a chuckle, "I can relate, I had asthma pre-serum."
Soon they were leaving the building. Immediately, their attention was brought by aggressive honking and a pissed off Happy.
"What on earth possessed you to do that! Do you even know what inconspicuous means?!" he yelled at Sam and Bucky in the van.
Bucky ignored him, slammed the honk and shouted at shell-shocked Peter and Steve, "Move faster, losers!" This brought the duo out of stupor as they started walking towards the car.
"You are not the SI drivers." Peter stated when they got near.
"We did a good deed, gave them a free day and took this car." Bucky grinned.
"How much more do you have?" Sam asked, eyeing them suspiciously. Both Peter and Steve were carrying a lot less than they could.
"Uhh, a lot?"
After packing boxes in the van, Peter and Steve went back to the apartment and came back with more. They did the tour a couple more times. Every time Bucky honked and yelled at them, much to Happy's dismay.
"So that's the last one for now," Peter informed.
Steve leaned against a car breathing heavily.
"Where's your super strength now, Steve?" Sam teased.
"Apparently it doesn't come with super stamina," Bucky snickered.
"Hey, try going up 7 flights of stairs and then down with heavy boxes and do that five times, then we will talk."
"I feel absolutely fine." Peter grinned at him.
"You carried less heavy boxes!" Steve's outburst made Sam and Bucky double in laughter.
"Ha, ha, ha, very funny, can we move on?" Steve crossed his arms. Another outburst of laughter echoed through the empty parking lot.
Sam took a deep breath trying to collect himself and finally said, "Okay, okay, so we'll be going, Happy you're going with us?"
"No. You are going to drive to the Tower carefully, bring those boxes to the elevator and leave them at my floor," Happy gave his instructions and leveled Sam and Bucky with a stare.
"Sure."
"Don't drop anything."
"Sure."
The pair got into the van and drove off. Peter waved at them and joined Steve and Happy in the doors of the building. They went back upstairs. When they entered the apartment, May, Pepper and Nat were packing the kitchen.
"Where's Tony? He was supposed to help?" Happy asked after realizing that the number of people in the room doesn't add up.
"Probably in my room reading Harry Potter."
"What?!"
"I gave it to him and he started to read."
Tony really was in Peter's room. When they opened the door they saw him sitting cross-legged on the floor, his back propped against the bed frame. His face was relaxed with a soft smile on his lips, eyes following the lines of the text. It made him look younger, with the wrinkles less pronounced. He was so engrossed in the book, that he didn't notice the newcomers that watched him in a doorway. Happy looked at Peter and lifted his finger to his lips, took out his phone and opened the camera app. He took a photo and the sound of it made Tony look up and open his mouth in shock, of which Happy took another picture.
"Hogan! Delete that!"
"That's my blackmail material!"
"What's going on?" Their shouts brought Pepper from the kitchen.
"Look at this," Happy replied.
"Aww, Tony, you look so adorable!" Pepper looked at him with affection.
"I am not adorable!"
"Yes, you are," Pepper said matter-of-factly and turned to Happy. "Happy, can you send that to me? I think I found a new lockscreen."
"Consider it done."
"Come on, we still have work to do, you can read later." Peter took the book out of Tony's hands and put some random piece of packing paper in as a bookmark.
"What's still left to pack?"
"Only clothes and some of my old dumpster diving projects, that shouldn't take much time."
After that they got to work. Packing the clothes was fast, but Tony still looked longingly at the book on the desk. Then they got to the things that Peter called his 'old dumpster diving projects'. It was in fact the jumble of wires, circuits boards and scrapes of metal that was mixed with various other things like old toys.
"Peter, can we just throw it all out?" Tony asked exasperated.
"What?! No!"
"You have better things at the workshop."
"Oh, look!" Peter rummaged through the pile of trash and took out a kid-sized replica of an Iron Man helmet and two plastic gauntlets with LED 'repulsors'. "Ben bought me that at the Stark Expo!"
"You were at the expo?!" Tony and Happy shouted in unison.
"Yeah, I even met you, you know?" Peter started and launched into a story ignoring pale looking men. "There were those killer drones and one of them targeted me, but I had this helmet and gauntlets, and I aimed one of them at it and then it blew up, and I looked behind and you were there and you said 'good job, kid'. It was so cool."
"Jesus Christ, it was you! Of course it was you." Tony put a hand onto his face and sunk down to the floor.
"Peter! Next time you see the killer drones, go the other way!" Happy shouted at him.
"But I'm Spider-Man!"
"Jesus…"
"Hey, nothing happened, I'm here."
"Now, I really just want to lock you in the Tower, kid."
"I second that," Happy said.
"You can't!"
"Yeah, unfortunately Pepper and May won't allow that…"
Tony got up and moved towards the pile on the floor.
"So I suggest throwing out any electronics and leaving only sentimental things." He started sorting through the pile, putting aside pieces of circuitry. Suddenly he stopped and lifted an envelope.
"What's this?" He opened it and took the content out. There were six photos.
"Aww, Peter, you were so cute!" ha exclaimed looking at the first one. There was a one year old Peter laying in bed and sleeping. He was dressed in blue pajamas and covered to the waist with a white comforter. He clutched a teddy bear and clung to him through his sleep. His face was slack, eyes closed. He had a mop of messy curls on top of his head. His mouth was open and he was drooling.
"Hey, guys, look what I've found, spiderling's baby photos," Tony shouted triumphantly, with shit-eating grin, leaving the room, Happy walking after him.
"Nooo, this is so embarrassing."
"What photos?" May looked at the pictures in Tony's hands. "Oh, I was wondering where did they go!"
May and Happy were looking at the photo over Tony's shoulder. Tony passed the first one to Pepper, Natasha and Steve and looked at the second one, when Peter was eating chocolate. His face was smeared with brown and he looked innocently at the camera. He passed that one to the others and looked at the next one. A little older Peter, sitting at the desk, behind him a gray wall with a NYPD logo. He was focused on drawing something with a crayon.
"Oh, I remember that, Ben used to take Peter with him to work, when he was little," May commented.
There were two pictures left. One was Peter dressed in a thick jacket, a scarf and a hat, only his eyes and nose visible, standing next to a snowman his height.
The last one was Peter dressed as an Iron Man. He held a helmet in his hands and grinned at the camera. Behind him was a Stark Industries logo. Every single picture provoked collective cooing, but this one was Tony's favorite.
"Aww, I'm taking that one!"
"No, you can't!" Peter looked at him in horror.
"Oh, you can take that Tony, don't listen to him." May smiled at them.
Tony took out his wallet and put a photo in it. He slid it back into his pocket and ruffled Peter's hair.
The moment was broken by aggressive honking. Happy looked out of the window, swore colorfully and stormed out. Tony went to the window and stared at the parking lot.
"Looks like Sam and Bucky came back."
Peter grabbed a box from the floor and ran out of the apartment, Steve following him.
"Peter, slow down!"
"Be careful!" May called behind them.
They were running down the stairs, Peter leading, Steve chasing him. Suddenly, on a third floor, Steve lost his footing and dropped like a brick. He let out a cry of pain and clutched at his leg. Peter was a floor down, but turned around and went up to see what happened.
"Oh, shit!
"Language!" Steve chastised him through the clenched teeth. There was no need for a medical degree to notice that his leg was definitely broken, as it was bent at a very wrong angle.
"Wha- what do I do?"
"Everything's okay down there?!" Nat's voice carried through the floors.
"Steve broke his leg!"
"Hold on, we're going to you!"
Three women and Tony went down to them and started discussing what to do. Peter was sent with boxes to the van to inform Happy, Sam and Bucky of what happened. They went with him to the building. Suddenly the small landing and the staircase were swarmed with eight people and a laying Steve.
"Excuse me!" someone called. The crowd blocking the staircase looked in the direction of the voice. There was a guy with bags full of groceries, trying to go up. When he saw their faces he abruptly stopped and gawked at the scene. The Avengers awkwardly shuffled and made a space for him, but he just stood there mouth opening and closing.
"Can I get an autograph? I'm a big fan!" he finally got out.
"We're kinda in the middle of the situation here, so no, not really," Tony replied with a frown.
Apparently the answer from Iron Man himself wasn't what the man expected, because his eyes widened and he started doing a gaping fish impression again. Happy tensed and prepared to scare and escort him, but Peter stepped in.
"May I help you with carrying these, sir?" He grabbed the man's bags and pushed him up the stairs. "You live on the fourth floor, right?" The guy didn't protest, just let himself be led up.
When Peter came back, the rest had a general plan. Bucky helped Steve up with his vibranium arm. Happy supported the soldier from the other side. Slowly, they hobbled down to the ground floor and to the van.
Moving had to be postponed for about a week due to Steve's injury. Later that day, May took out the photo albums out of the boxes that were already delivered to the Tower. She brought them to the team dinner to show the Avengers more baby Peter's photos. Most of the team left after some time and only Tony, Pepper, Happy, May and very embarrassed Peter were left. Soon, they migrated to the couch. May kept the album in her lap, Happy slung an arm around her shoulder, Peter curled into her side. Pepper sat down next to Peter. Tony grumbled that they took all of the couch and that he have to buy a bigger one and took a seat on the coffee table in front of May. He looked at the pictures upside down and sometimes bumped his head against May's. There was a photo of Peter on the beach. A man held him by his ankles and a woman held him under his armpits. They were swinging the kid, who smiled widely.
"Those were Peter's parents," May said. "I remember that day, it was Peter's fifth birthday and we went to the beach."
"I don't remember that," Peter murmured.
"You were little, that's normal."
"Yeah…" Peter curled even closer into May and put a head on her shoulder.
No one knew how to continue the subject. Sometimes it was better to leave things unsaid, like the fact that Peter's parents were replaced with May and Ben in the next album. Or that Ben stopped appearing in the pictures a couple years ago and it was only May and Peter. Or that there was a real possibility of May sharing their fate a few weeks ago.
On Peter's birthday they were supposed to give him presents during the dinner. Tony decided to give his present before, in private. He handed the teen a wrapped gift.
"What's that? It's heavy!"
"Open it and you will know it."
Peter tore a paper and looked surprised. There was a new album. He opened it. There was a lot of photos of him with the various members of the team. Most of them were stills from FRIDAY, like Peter winning in Mario Kart yet another time, or beating Natasha in sparring for the first time. But there were also the photos taken by someone, either posed or taken by surprise. There were also a few photos with Ned and MJ, like when they won AcaDec competition.
"You know, I just wanted you to know that no matter what happens you have tons of people in your corner," Tony said.
Peter's expression was unreadable, when he looked at the pages. Tony suddenly felt unsure if the present was a good idea.
Peter finished looking at the photos and moved his gaze to Tony. His eyes were a bit watery and Tony started backtracking, "I mean… You know… It's just-"
He was interrupted by the teenager throwing himself at him. Peter wrapped his arms around him and squeezed as hard as it was possible without breaking his ribs. Tony hesitantly returned the gesture and started rubbing his back soothingly.
"So, you like it?"
"Yeah, I do."
And later that day, when May sent him a grateful look during the dinner, he knew that he couldn't think of a better present.