After Peter's walk, he had gone right to bed. Even though sleeping had been hard before now it was easy. His dream wasn't haunted by nightmares either. When he woke up Rhodey had been there. Apparently Rhodey had been just as shocked as Peter when he found out, but now he obviously just overjoyed that Tony was alive.
"Platypus, I'm surprised you're not upset that you're going to lose the cars and vacation home you inherited," Tony joked as he ate a cheeseburger in the living room while the three of them watched TV. Or rather sat there while the TV played and everyone ignored it.
Rhodey rolled his eyes and glanced at the TV.
This made Peter cringe. He knew what he needed to do. He took off EDITH and extended it to Tony. "You should take this back."
There was a long silence and Pepper could be heard in the background on the phone probably with someone who worked for her.
Giving EDITH really would be for the best. He was just a teenager and Tony had probably not intended for him to get this until he was older.
Tony stared at him and then shook his head. "Nah, Underoos. I want you to have them."
"But you're not…" dead, but he didn't complete his sentence. He didn't even want to say that word out loud as if somehow it could reverse Tony being alive.
"Yeah, and don't forget it, but I still want you to have it," Tony said with a shrug. "EDITH can kind of be like another babysitter for you."
Peter sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes but put the sunglasses back on. "I'm seventeen, Tony."
"Yeah, yeah, Underoos. You don't need to tell me your age again. Are you trying to make me feel bad about missing your birthday? It's not my fault I'm a prisoner here," Tony said. "I swear I'll make it up to you."
"You don't have to do that," Peter said, but he had a feeling Tony would try anyway.
"I want to." Tony gave an evil grin. Oh great. Tony went crazy for birthdays and Peter didn't need any presents.
Tony looked over at Rhodey. "And Southpatch, I was joking. You can keep the cars and the vacation home, too. I don't need them."
"Tony…"
"I mean it. Kid keeps EDITH and you keep cars and vacation home. Good talk," Tony said as Morgan pretty much came running into the room and jumped on Tony's lap.
"That's fine with me," Rhodey said. "They're nice cars."
"Daddy, I want a car," Morgan said. "And juice pops."
"You can have juice pops, but you're a little young for a car," Tony said as he got up with Morgan. "You two want any juice pops?"
"I do," Peter said, since he was pretty much always hungry due to his metabolism being faster than normal people. "Grape."
"I'm okay," Rhodey said.
Tony nodded and then left to go to the kitchen with Morgan to retrieve them. The two of them had probably been gone about a minute when Rhodey cleared his throat.
"You've been okay, Peter?" Rhodey asked, raising an eyebrow. "I know Tony doesn't know everything that happened yet but I heard about it."
Peter cringed. He shouldn't have been surprised. Rhodey probably knew. Fury or maybe Happy had told him.
"I'm fine but don't… don't tell Tony…" He wasn't ready for Tony to know about all of that.
Rhodey paused but then nodded. "You know he wouldn't be upset with you. He'd be pissed at Beck."
Peter shrugged.
"It's fine if you want to wait," Rhodey said.
"Thanks." He didn't want someone pushing him into telling Tony everything that happened. Really there was a chance Happy would do it soon.
"And if you ever need someone to talk about hero stuff to then you can call me."
That… that was so similar to what Peter had said to Beck once. He froze but only for a moment because then Morgan was in the room and shoved a juice pop in his hand.
"Really Platypus? Trying to steal my mentee? Find your own mentee. I know mentees are in hot demand, but this one is mine." Tony sat in between Rhodey and Peter and grinned. He has made popcorn too, which smelled almost only like butter."I'm sure there is someone who'd like to be your mentee. Maybe." He shrugged.
"I'm sure there's more than just one person," Rhodey said.
"Maybe now that you have part of my car collection."
Rhodey rolled his eyes but took a handful of popcorn which he crammed in his mouth.
Tony looked at Peter. "Don't worry, kiddo. You can talk to Sugarbear." Peter still thought it was weird that Tony called his best friend that but he always had nicknames for everyone. "Just don't forget who your favorite Avenger is."
Peter didn't hesitate. "Why would I forget Thor's my favorite?"
"You're cruel." Tony said, but it was obvious that he was trying not to grin by how his eyes were lit up.
"Want to know my favorite Avenger?" Morgan asked as she ate her juice pop.
"Obviously me. I'm probably Platypus's favorite too." Tony ate some popcorn. "Probably everyone's even Legolas and Capsicle's."
"Spider-Man's my favoritest!" Morgan said, grinning.
"Wow. That's…" Peter couldn't help but grin. It was amazing that she would pick him when so many of the Avangers have done cooler things.
"I used to tell her stories about you all the time," Tony said. "About how you rescued kittens and got free churros from ladies."
Peter wasn't sure what to say. He knew that Morgan had been told some stories, but he didn't know it had been all the time.
Peter couldn't help but grin.
The rest of the weekend was amazing, and he was sad when it ended, but Tony said that he and his family would be going back to New York soon. As soon as they got permission. Peter just hoped that it really would be soon. Peter would have liked to stay longer in Wakanda, but he had to go back to school and just back home.
Once he got back home, he had to pretend like nothing had happened. What he told people depended on who he was talking to. When it came to MJ, Ned, and May, he was just supposed to say that it was official and secret Avenger business and he could mention that it had something to do with the Starks, but he should try not to.
It was worse for normal people. He was supposed to tell them that there had been an emergency in the family and he had gone to visit family. It worked for most people he talked to but not everyone.
"You went because of a family emergency?" Eddie asked when he had gone to dinner with him and May. He was raising his eyebrows. "How could you have a family emergency and not May? You're in the same family."
"Uh…" Suddenly Peter was stuck. Nothing would come to mind even though he should have even able to spit out some kind of excuse even if it was lame.
Yet there was nothing.
May smiled though and put her hand on Peter's shoulder. "He was going to visit some family on his mother's side."
Peter barely stopped himself from cringing at those words. His mother's family… he wasn't sure he had any family back there. Maybe very decent but his grandparents were dead, and his mother had been an only child.
Maybe she had some cousins out there somewhere, but Peter didn't know them.
Eddie gave them both a look. He didn't believe them obviously but then he gave them both a smile. "Oh, that's just great." There was an edge beneath his voice, but May didn't seem to hear it. She grinned and kissed Eddie.
Peter tried not to shudder.
The next few weeks were okay though. Eddie was around, yes, but usually he ignored Peter. Peter had a lot going on too with applying for colleges and just spidermanning.
He wanted to stay busy. Peter was still having to keep Tony being alive a secret and it was really wearing him down. MJ knew he had a secret and he hated lying to her. Yet he kept doing it.
But he told her he would tell her everything soon.
Tony was texting him a lot too. Apparently he was very bored or maybe he had missed Peter as much as he had missed him. Peter doubted it.
Tony was apparently so bored that Peter actually could now convince him to play games online with him. Tony was somehow the worst at Fortnite. Having him on his team always caused him to lose.
Peter had even mentioned this and of course Tony had got defensive.
"How could I be bad at Fortnite?" Tony texted. "I'm good at everything."
Peter rolled his eyes. The next time Tony actually didn't die right away. For a short time, Peter had believed Tony was improving.
Then he found out, he had Morgan play for him and he had just talked during it.
That was kind of risky too, but no one had suspected he was Tony Stark. The other users just thought he was a dad who sucked at the game but was trying to learn to impress his kids.
No one had ever accused him of being Tony Stark, but once when the two of them were playing someone named Noobmaster69 claimed to know Thor and had said he was a "dickhead." Tony had laughed though when Noobmaster69 mentioned that.
Tony was better at Smash Bros, but Peter could still always beat him. He was just that good. One of Peter's new hobbies was making Mario Maker courses that was impossible for Tony to beat.
After he failed Tony would always text how he wanted his lab back. Peter knew he still was working on things, but he was more limited than before.
Despite how bad Tony was, Peter secretly thought he liked playing with him.
And maybe today after patrol they could play again.
At least that was what Peter hoped but patrol was crazy. It was like every criminal in the city was trying to break the law. A couple times Peter almost got shot.
But he had saved a someone and that made it more than worth it.
After everything, Peter knew that he should head right home, but sometimes after a long day of patrolling, he would swing through the city for awhile.
It was best to clear his mind.
And he didn't realize that it was so late but when he stopped, he realized that it was eleven. It wasn't that bad really. His curfew was eleven on weekends, but May would understand. He quickly shot her a text and headed home. He didn't get a response because she was probably sleeping.
It didn't take him that long to get there. Only twenty minutes since recently May had been worried about the neighbors seeing him come through the window so now he'd stop swinging a few blocks away and then come to the door the normal way. Apparently, this was best since one of their neighbors didn't seem to believe in sleep and would sit looking out their window for hours at time.
But it was fine. It only took a few minutes and Peter was at the front door. He opened it to darkness. So maybe was sleeping. No surprise.
Then the lights flicked on.
And it wasn't May.
It was Eddie's whose hair was ruffled as if he had been sleeping. He narrowed his eyes at Peter. That wasn't a surprise. He was always glaring at him. "Where were you?"
This was not what Peter had been expecting. Yes, he knew that May and Eddie had gone on a date earlier, but he was sure that he would have left before Peter came home. But it appeared he planned to sleep over since he was wearing just sweatpants and an old shirt. Pajamas obviously.
"Nowhere," Peter said because it really wasn't any of his business what he was doing. He wasn't his father or his uncle or even a mentor. He was no one to him.
"Nowhere?" Eddie said as he moved closer to him. Peter's spidey senses were going crazy, but he ignored them.
"Nowhere that you need to worry about," Peter said. He sighed and realized he should probably be nicer since she was May's boyfriend and she liked him. It was just… Peter didn't know what he thought about Eddie.
Eddie sighed and went over to him. "Obviously you were somewhere."
"It… I was just studying with my friend Ned," Peter said.
"Why do I not believe that?"
Anger shot through Peter. Really? Was he really going to act this way? "I'll explain to May tomorrow why I was late. She'll understand." He would tell he the real reason. Now that she knew about Spider-Man, he didn't have to lie about things like this.
It had made his life easier.
"I can't believe what she lets you get away with. My father wouldn't have let me get away with this when I was your age."
Peter didn't really care about Eddie's father and what he had or hadn't allowed him to do. He was tired and just wanted to get some rest, so he tried to walk past him.
But then he grabbed his arm. Tightly and actually twisted. It hurt but obviously Peter had gone through so much worse. Still he was shocked. But he didn't do anything, even though he could have since he was Spider-Man after all.
"You don't walk away when I'm talking to you," Eddie said.
Peter yanked his arm away. "Don't grab me." He had no right to touch him, especially that hard. Yes, something like that didn't really hurt him that badly, especially since he was Spider-Man, but he still had no right.
"Then don't stay up late. May's already stressed enough thanks to you."
Thanks to him? But maybe he was right. Having Peter be Spider-Man couldn't be easy for May. She had to worry about him, especially after Thanos.
"I'm going to tell her you were out after curfew in the morning."
"Fine, but I'm going to bed." He walked away again, and this time Eddie didn't stop him. Peter shot his door locking it behind him. He looked at his wrist which was red. He could still see the finger print marks on his skin.
But he'd be fine. It would heal in a few minutes.
Still, what a weirdo.
The next day, just like he threatened, Eddie told May what had happened. Eddie must have thought that Peter was asleep or just that he couldn't hear them. Obviously, Peter could because he had enhanced hearing.
Mostly it was just Eddie complaining about Peter and how he was out of control and breaking all May's rules. May had ended up saying something about how she would handle Peter, and Eddie had caved, even though judging from the dramatic sigh that he gave, he wasn't happy about it.
Eddie had mostly ignored him after that, but occasionally would glare in Peter's direction. That is until one day a couple weeks later when Peter had been playing Fortnite again with Tony who had improved a bit. Apparently Cap also knew that Tony was alive now because he had joined too.
Somehow Steve was so bad that he made Tony look like Ninja. Not only would Steve struggle at even walking forward, but he would also occasionally lecture the other players if they swore too much.
They had just started another game when without even knocking Eddie came into Peter's room. He put his arm around Peter's shoulder. "Hey, Peter."
Why was he doing that? Peter cringed but didn't make him move his arm away from his shoulder.
"Who is that?" Tony said through the headset.
"It's… I…"
"I need to talk to you. So stop playing your little game," Eddie said.
Peter was actually about to do that and to tell Tony that he would be right back, but then Eddie actually pulled the controller away and tossed it to the ground. He yanked his headset down after.
Eddie smiled as if it wasn't a big deal. "You can go back to it after."
"Uh… okay…" Eddie didn't act this way in front of May. He even was nice to Peter then.
"I just realized we might have… gotten off on the wrong foot," Eddie said.
Peter could hear Tony saying something over the headset, but the words didn't make sense to him.
"We should go have lunch sometime, just the two of us," Eddie said, giving him a forced looking smile that didn't come close to reaching his eyes.
Peter stared at him.
"May would like it," Eddie said.
May… Yeah, May would want the two of them to get along. And May still was happy with Eddie. The least Peter could do was be nice to him too.
"Yeah, fine, whatever." Peter shrugged.
Eddie grinned. "Thanks, I'll tell May."
Yeah, Peter was sure he would since he was positive it was her idea. Still Peter nodded, hoping that Eddie would just leave. Luckily, he did. Peter rolled his eyes and picked up his controller and then fixed his headset.
"Who was that?" Tony asked.
"He's…" Peter sighed. "I'll tell you later."
But he didn't want to. Not really.
Tony probably would have asked more questions, but then luckily he got killed in the game.
"What the hell? How is it that Noobmaster69 guy? What the fu—"
"Language!" Steve said.
That just made Tony swear more, and Peter couldn't help but grin for a second despite that things were getting weird at home.
((AN: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.
kellentia: Happy is amazing. I totally ship Happy and May. I hope Marvel has them stay together. They're so cute.
MazikeenWolf: Irondad is the best!
Moorsey23: Aww thank you. Hope ypu like this chapter too! I thought it was funny.
Bunearybunny: No problem. I love writing, especially this. The comments mean so much to me.
skydancer121: That's awesome to hear. I hope you enjoy this chapter :D ))
