.oO0Oo.

After sifting through the garbage piles for a few hours (read: visiting his sister and her family) Peter walked out of the elevator and brought out his keys, flicking them out. He unlocked the door and pulled his keys out, closing the door behind him.

He sort of noticed the other person in the room with his aunt, but put it off as a friend of hers. "Hey May." Walking to the table, he set the DVD player down.

"How was school today?"

"Okay. There's this crazy car parked outside." He paused, seeing the head that most definitely did not belong to one of May's friends.
Oh, no. It belonged to a Mr. Tony Stark.

"Oh, Mr. Parker!"

"Um." Peter was genuinely confused. He pulled out his earbuds and pointed to Mr. Stark. "Wha? What are you doing? Hey! Um, I'm, I'm Peter."

"Tony."

"What are you, what are you, what are you doing here?" Honestly, Peter was going through every possible scenario in his head. From Aunt May's boyfriend to him getting in Avenger level trouble, as Spiderman, of course. Oh, please don't be Spiderman stuff.

Can you believe it! May mouthed.

"It's about time we met. You've been getting my emails, right?" Mr. Stark winked. "Right?"

"Yeah…" Peter was even more confused. He had never received an email from Mr. Stark. Ever. "Yeah. Regarding…?"

"You didn't tell me about the grant."

"The grant."

"September Foundation."

"Right."

"Yeah. Remember when you applied?"

"Yeah?"

I approved!" Aunt May shook her hands in confusion, mouthing something to him. "So now, we're in business."

"You didn't tell me anything, what's up with that? Keeping secrets from me?"

"Well, I just, I just know how much you love surprises, so I thought I would let you know… Anyway, what did I apply for?"

"That's what we're here to hash out"

Okay. This was getting weird. He had not applied for any grant of any kind. "Okay. Hash, hash out."

"It is so hard for me to believe that she is someone's aunt."

"Well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know."

"This walnut date loaf is exceptional."

"Just stop you there." No, the walnut date loaf was terrible, and everyone in the building knew it. May could burn water. Her cooking wasn't any good, and her walnut date loaf might not have been the best thing ever, with it being dry and slightly stale.

"Yeah?"

"Is this grant, like, got money involved or whatever?" Yeah, not his smoothest line, but he knew he hadn't applied for the September Foundation, and wondered why Mr. Stark was really here. "No?"

"Yeah." Mr. Stark's voice wavered a little, as if he were unsure of his answer. "It's, it's pretty well funded." Of course it was, Mr. Stark was directly involved. "Look who you're talking to, kid.

"Can I have five minutes with him?"

"Sure!"

.oO0Oo.

Now in Peter's room, Mr. Stark closed and locked the door after him. The click scared him a little, and Peter was belatedly wondering if this was a monster of some sort. His dagger was hidden inside his backpack, in the other room, and he had a sword in his closet, but his bedroom was cramped and it would be hard to swing. But, Athena always had a plan. He just didn't have all the variables yet.

Mr. Stark (if that's who it really was) spit out the date loaf. But then, May could mostly see through the Mist, so, well, could this really be Mr. Tony Stark? "As far as walnut date loaves go, that's not bad." Mr. Stark moved over to the table Peter had in a corner. Really, it took up a quarter of the room. It was full of all sorts of stuff he had saved from the dump. "Ohh, what do we have here? Retrotech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?"

"The, um, garbage actually."

"You're a dumpster diver." It wasn't really a question.

"Yeah, I was… An-anyway, look. I, um. I definitely did not apply for your grant."

"Ah ah. Me first."

"Okay."

"Quick question, of the rhetorical variety." Holding up his phone, a hologram-something popped out and played a quick video, the one from last week, of Spiderman swinging in and webbing the leg of a potential carjacker. "That's you, right?"

"Um, no." Okay, so the planning could convene. Mr. Stark already knew, he was sure of that. "What do you, what do you-"

"Yeah." Flipping the phone over, another video of him pulling a runaway car away from hitting a person, then catching it from hitting a bus. "Look at you go! Wow, three thousand pounds, forty miles an hour. That's not easy. You got some mad skills."

"That's all, that's all on YouTube though, right? That's where you found all that?" He was stalling at this point. "'Cause, you know, that's all fake, it's all done on the computer?" He was standing at his desk now, and Mr. Stark was facing away from him.

"Mmm, hmm"

"I… it's like that video, what is it?"

"Yeah, yeah yeah. Oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Peter saw Tony reach for the stick next to his table and push up on the cubby door in his ceiling. "Exactly." The crack caused him to look up, and he reacted. Jumping, he grabbed the suit as it bounced on the end if it's string. Maybe he shouldn't have put it there. "Oh, what have we here?"

"Uh. It's uh." He sighed.

"So. You're the spider-ling. Crime-fighting Spider. Spider-Boy?"

Throwing one of his hands up, he corrected the man. "Spider-Man." He was starting to fidget, stupid battle reflexes. They weren't any better when he was actually in battle. At least he could rule out the possibility that this wasn't actually Mr. Stark.

"Not in that onesie, you're not."

Peter looked at him in disbelief for a moment. "It's not a onesie.

"I don't believe this. I was actually having a really good day today, you know, Mr. Stark. Didn't miss my train, there was this perfectly good DVD player, was just sitting there. And a surprise algebra test." He slapped the pen he had pick up on the table. "Nailed it."

"Who else knows? Anybody?"

Peter hesitantly shook his head. Maybe it was a lie, but at least he wasn't Apollo's kid, who couldn't tell lies to save their lives. Maybe his older sister knew. Maybe she secretly helped him develop an AI that no one even knew he had in his suit. Maybe he babysat for her and Aunt Sally every once in a while. Estelle and Selina were adorable kids, after all. "Nobody."

"Not even your unusually attractive aunt?"

"No. No. Nono, If she knew, she would freak out! And when she freaks out, I freak out-"

"You know what I think is really cool? This webbing," He continued without letting Peter answer. Throwing the capsule at him, Peter barely had any time to reach up and grab the thing. He let out a sigh. "The tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?"

"I did." throwing the capsule behind the hamper, Peter continued to listen to Mr. Stark as he rambled on.

"Climbing walls? How you doing that? Adhesive gloves?"

"It's a, uh, long story. I was-"

"Lordy, can you even see in these?" Mr. Stark was holding the goggles up to his face. If they stayed on for long enough, an image of Annabeth appeared and gave him his 'pre-patrol speech'. He had the thing memorized.

"Yes! Yes. I can!" He snached the suit from Mr. Stark's hands, but he still heard the "Now, little spider-," at the beginning of the speech.

"I'm blind!" Mr. Stark wailed.

"I can see in those. Okay? It's just that, when, whenever happened, happened, it, like, dialed my senses to eleven. There's way too much input, so they just help me focus."

"Who was the girl in there? Called you little spider?" Dang. He did see that.

"Uh, no comment? Plead the fifth?"

"I'll be pushing that later. In the present, you are in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom, hundred point restoration. That's why I'm here."

Peter's bed creaked as he sat on it.

"Why you doing this?" When Peter just looked blankly at him, Mr. Stark elaborated. "I gotta know, what's your MO, what gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?"

Peter picked at his hand. "Because… I…" He was trying to think. "Because I've been me my whole life, and I've had these powers for six months. I read books, I build computers. And, yeah, I would love to play football, but I couldn't then so I shouldn't now."

"Sure, cause you're different."

"Yes. But I can't tell anybody that, so I'm not. Look. When you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you."

"So you want to look out for the little guy, you want to do your part?" Peter wondered where this was going. Surely Mr. Stark would want something. "Make the world a better place, all that, right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Just looking out for the little guy. That's what it is."

Mr. Stark stood up and walked over to the bed. Peter didn't understand what was going on. "I'm going to sit here, so you move the leg."

Peter moved the leg.

Slapping his hand on Peter's shoulder, Mr. Stark asked if Peter had a passport. "No, no I don't even have a driver's licence."

"You ever been to Germany?"

"N-no."

"Oh, you'll love it." Here it is. The thing he wanted.

"I can't go to Germany."

"Why?"

"I got, I got homework." It was a lame excuse.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

"And a babysitting job tomorrow."

"We can schedule a nanny or something."

Not for these kiddos. "I'm being serious! I can't just drop out of school."

"Might be a little dangerous. Better tell Aunt Hottie I'm taking you on a field trip." Mr. Stark moved to the door, putting his hand on the knob and turning it a little.

Peter shot up and shot a web at Mr. Stark's hand on the door. "Don't tell Aunt May."

"All right Spider-Man." They looked at each other for a moment. "Get me out of this."

"Sorry, I'll get the…"

.oO0Oo.

After Mr. Stark had left, Peter told his aunt he was going to visit Annabeth's place. Pulling on his mask (of course May knew, Annabeth made him tell her right away) he slipped out the window.

He knew Mr. Stark would be sending someone out for him in a couple of hours. Peter wondered what it was all about. Maybe he would find out on the way to, apparently, Germany.

Anyway, he swung to the apartment, which was about a half hour away. He had memorized the path a long time ago, and used the Mist to hide his entry. "Annabeth! I got something to tell you!"

"Shh, Peter, I just got Selina down for a nap. I'm in the living room."

"Okay." He walked in there, pulling off his mask as he did so. Running his fingers through his hair, stopped in the hallway when he saw that there was more than just Annabeth in the living room. Percy, of course, and also Leo and Piper. Jason was away on Camp Jupiter business. He still hadn't finished all the temples, even six years later.

It was a lot to do. Peter had helped a little, and he never knew there were so many minor gods and goddesses. He had discovered over a hundred, and Jason was the one talking to them all, with Annabeth, to find out what they wanted in their temples or cabins. He knew there were hundreds more too. It was going to be a long time.

"So, are you going to give me a hug or not, little brother?" Peter pointed to the two others. Really, only Annabeth, Percy, and May knew he was Spiderman, but it wasn't too hard to figure out, he didn't hide it all that much at camp. And now, Piper and Leo were right in front of him. In the suit. "They've seen weirder, Petie."

Peter nodded and shrugged. That was true. They were part of the team that saved the world a couple times over. So he went over and hugged his sister.

"Hey, Leo, Piper, Perce." He also went over and hugged Percy, and then sat on the couch nearby.

"Hey Peter/Pete," they all echoed. None of them seemed surprised by the fact he was wearing a red and blue spider patterned outfit (not pajamas) and holding the mask in his hand.

"Hey, we can come back later, if you want?" Leo said.

"Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea. We can schedule the get together later. We all have each other's numbers anyway."

"Yup! See you guys sometime next month!"

With that, Leo and Piper made their way out and it was just Percy and Annabeth left with Peter.

"So, what do you need?"

"Tony Stark approached me today. I think he's expecting me to be ready to be picked up in about an hour for a plane ride to Germany of all places."

"And this is for Peter Parker or Spiderman?" Percy broke in.

"Spiderman. He was super interested in what gets me up and out of bed, into the suit everyday. I told him the thing I told you a few months ago."

Both of them nodded. "I get it. I really do." Percy was saying. "You have no idea how it was to lead during two wars, but luckily I had your sister on my side the whole time."

Percy tucked Annabeth into his side and she giggled. "Oh, Seaweed Brain."

Peter smiled because he was glad his sister was able to find her forever. "What do you guys think? About Stark?"

"I haven't heard anything from Clint, but then again, he kinda lives in retirement with Laura now. But I think it would be okay to work with him."

"Yeah?"

"Yup."

"Thank you, sis!" Peter stood up, pulled on his mask, and ran to the window.

"No cookies? Sally dropped them off about half an hour ago, they might still be warm. We kept them a secret from Leo and Pipes."

Peter stopped, turned around, ran to the kitchen and grabbed a box of a dozen cookies before giving his sister one last hug and flinging himself out the window.

"Oh, Petie. What would we do without you?"

.oO0Oo.

Swinging back into his apartment, Peter thumped down on the fire escape and slid in his window. "I'm back, May!"

"Ok!"

He walked into the front room and held the box out to May, wordlessly offering the cookies. "Oh! Sally's?" SHe took two of the blue chocolate chip delicacies.

"You know it. No one else makes them the same. Except Percy might if he remembered to take them out of the oven in time."

They both laughed at the misfortune of Percy's cookies about 99 percent of the time.

After about half an hour of them sitting on the couch exchanging stories, there was a knock at the door, which Peter froze and ran to his room to change lightning fast.

The sweats were exchanged for a pair of jeans, and the sweater was taken off to show the science pun t-shirt underneath.

Walking back into the living room, Peter was greeted with the sight of May and a distinctly unhappy man.

"Peter, this is Happy. He's here to take you to the internship thing in Germany with Mr. Stark."

Wasn't that just the most ironic name.