Peter wasn't going to lie to himself.
He was beginning to accept the fact that perhaps, maybe Hydra had been wrong about everything from the very beginning, and after a month he was starting to recognize his life for what it was. However, that wasn't going to bring his carefully constructed walls down completely. Sure, he said he would like to be an Avenger someday, but, what if the Avengers were everything he thought they were?
He supposed he just wanted to not be bad if that made sense. However, one thing he absolutely knew for certain was bad about SHIELD and the Avengers was that they stayed true to their word about finding him a tutor, which didn't sound bad at first until he realized how boring it was. It resembled those tedious and miserable lectures he would endure at Hydra Base.
The only thing he found kind of interesting was on the days they talked about math or science. Science always had math in it, and math always had science. They made the ultimate duo.
He also found interest during those regular exams he would have at SHIELD headquarters. They were trying to figure out more about his abnormal powers, and exactly what else he could do.
In his spare time, he found that he would unconsciously follow Tony Stark around as he went about his business. He would watch him in his workplace, tinkering with machines and his Iron Man suit, which, wasn't even made of iron at all! He would spend that time lobbing questions faster than the aggravated genius could answer.
"It's Gold and Magnesium," Tony explained matter-of-factly. "I don't know all of them at the top of my head, but I'm sure you'll go over the elements soon enough."
He still hadn't slept in his bed yet, it made him feel so out of place. It gave him this notion that all of this was temporary, and he would be whisked away soon enough. He still found himself trying to defend Hydra even now as he stood among his supposed enemies. He wanted to believe that all those years of torment meant something, that it was for his benefit. How could all those years he spent bleeding and suffering for peace be shed away in a month?
Then there was Natasha Romanoff, his unofficial/official overseer. Ironically, he saw her least of all. She didn't spend much time in the tower, mostly SHEILD. She had her own place, so she would pop in here and there. Then, when she was staying at the tower, her time was consumed by work, which didn't bother Peter too much. They still exercised sometimes, and along the way, they learned more about each other.
It help make her seem less like an enemy and more like a human being with thoughts and feelings. It helped him feel like one himself.
They seemed a lot like each other as well, always detached from everything. However, he did have a chilidsh curiosity that he was completely oblivious too. He was not really allowed to explore much about himself at all, but now that he was starting to develop likes and dislikes he couldn't help himself.
Thus far, he was holding up okay. He still worried, and had dreams, and he still wasnt completely sure if he trusted them. It felt too good to be true. He knew their had to be a catch. So he refused to let himself relax all the way, waiting for the moment everything would go back to the way it was.
"You were right sir," a skinny man wearing an all black uniform, scurried into the dimly lit room. "We have confirmation that the boy is currently with the desired targets."
"Excellent," the unkown voice said. It was deep and unnatural, similar to (again), the Darth Vadar voice.
"How is this Excellent?" the skinny man asked. "Your life's work is in the clutches of the Avengers! The boy has defected!*?"
"You didn't think I didnt know this wohld happen?" Deep voice asked. "I am no idiot. I knew the boy would falter when he came face to face with the real threat. They are maniuplitive, but that's all fine, because this is percisely what I wanted to happen. Keep an eye on him, and trust in me. The child will come running back to us, begging us to help him kill the Avengers."
The skinny man shivered at the harsh voice, but nodded quickly, walking out of the room exactly from which he came.
A dark sillohette seated at a chrome table chuckled softly to himself as he thought of the boy. After thirty years he was able to finally show off his life's work, and take care of the Avengers for good. Peace was practically within his grasp.
Hydra would finally save the world from her greatest, most dangerous enemy. The one she never knew she ever had.
The Avengers...
Natasha Romanoff nearly throttled her friend that afternoon while she was reading over a file in the tower's main sitting room.
She thought, for the most part, that she was alone. Tony and Bruce were being isolated nerd's in their labs, Steve, she assumed, was at SHIELD probably talking about something stressful and life-threatening, Thor was probably off slaying giants in Asgard, and she had thought her close friend, Clint, was at home being a productive husband and father.
Nope.
As she was reading, he had somehow snuck up on her, which in itself was a no small feat, since sneaking up on Natasha Romanoff was next to impossible. The first time Clint had attempted that, she kind of flipped him over her shoulder, onto the floor, and fractured his good hand.
Needless to say, he hadn't been able to hold a bow without pain for two months.
She must have been out of her element that evening because she hadn't heard him enter or even heard his footsteps as he crept up from behind. A pathetic mistake that she couldn't believe she let happen.
When she felt calloused hands on her shoulders, her fight or flight instincts kicked into full gear, and she just reacted, punching Clint Barton right across the face. It was a solid blow. Natasha was rarely ever sloppy.
"Gah!" he cried out, holding onto the side of his throbbing face. It was already beginning to bruise.
"Ohhh," Natasah hissed sympathetically. "That's kind of what you get."
Clint looked at her in shock. "I think what you meant to say was, I'm so sorry for freaking punching the living daylights out of Clinton," he said. "Oh, that's alright, I forgive you Natasha."
She rolled her eyes. He had the nerve to play victim as if it was her fault! "You brought this upon yourself," she scoffed. "You knew the consequences that you could potentially face, and chose to go through with it anyway, so if anybody is to blame it'd ought to be yourself."
"Whatever," he grumbled, flopping down on the sofa next to her. He looked down to see what she was reading, and when he saw a case file labeled by one of SHEILDS experienced agents, and psychologist, he raised a brow at her. "What's that your reading?" He asked
"Nothing that really concerns nosy Barton's," she said, flipping through the documents.
Ignoring her, he peered down at the files, scanning for anything familiar, until he came across the name of the boy.
"They made a file on Peter," he stated aloud. "Your reading it?"
She shrugged nonchalantly. "I was curious."
"How did you get them to let you have it?"
"I'm a spy," she said like it was obvious. "I think I can swipe a simple file from the SHEILD archives unoticed."
"Fury's going to kill you."
"Only if I get caught," she smirked. She was secretly hoping to get caught just so that she could see the little veins on the side of Nick's head pop.
"What does it say?"
"Not much," she admitted, disappointed. "From his recent examination, it says his memories are scattered, and they're not sure he truly understands just how much time he spent asleep or what really happened to him, or even his parents for that matter."
"It was only thirty years ago," Clint said. "I'm sure he has some family alive."
"Yup," Natasha said. "Apparently his father had a sister, May Parker. That's his aunt. She lives in Queens and is currently in her fifties."
Clint furrowed her brow. "Does she know...that her nephew is alive?"
She looked up from the files to look at Clint. "Nick thinks that it's better nobody knows that he's alive. As of right now, May Parker still believes her nephew died the same night his parents died. SHEILD fabricated details to keep the public in the dark. Nobody really knows the truth about the kid."
"I'd think she'd like to know," Clint murmured.
"We can't take any chances," she insisted, shaking her head slightly. "Hydra probably knows he's here, but we still don't want word getting out about Peter. I don't think it's wise that people should know the truth. The public will ask questions, which might leak Dr. Parker's true occupation as well as all sorts of confidential information that could put what's left of Peter's family, and us in danger."
Clint looked down at his hands. He knew she was right, but he still felt kind of wrong about it. If something were to happen to his own family, and he suddenly learned that they were actually alive, he'd want to be the first to know. But, the situation was complicated. Peter was dangerous until he learned the full extent of his power. He was still guarded, and traumatized and, wasn't at all the kid he should be. No doubt Hydra wants their asset back, but Clint couldn't help but think that it would seem rather obvious that Peter would be hiding with SHEILD. Clint was genuinely surprised they went this long without a confrontation with Hydra. It seemed odd.
Either Hydra must be blind, or they were missing a couple of their brain cells. It was fishy.
As if reading his kind Natasha said, "I have a bad feeling about this."
"You're not the only one," Clint nodded.
"Peter doesn't know exactly what he is," she said, "he won't understand it as we do, and exactly why things have to be this way...just don't tell him about his Aunt, and don't tell the other's for that matter."
"Sharing and keeping secrets is what we do best," Clint joked. "I won't say a thing...but, I was thinking, you know it wouldn't hurt if you-"
"-I'm not sure I want to hear what's about to come out of that hole of you call a mouth.
Clint held his hands up with a look of mock innocence. "I'm just saying, Peter never really had a childhood. Most of the Avenger's childhood was less than peachy as well...I'm thinking, me being the fun, cool person I am, that I could turn this paranoid soldier into a kid."
"He's too serious for that," Natasha said. "It would never work, Hydra made him mature prematurely. the only time he really acts his age is when Bruce or Tony is egging him on with their weird hobbies."
"Great, he must like science and tech!" Clint exclaimed. He withered when Natasha gave him a look that said: could you possibly talk any louder? "Anywho," he lowered his voice. "I could get him a chemistry set, or even better, a phone!"
"Peter almost had a brain fart when Tony first introduced him to FRIDAY. I don't think he's ready for a freaking phone yet."
"Well, who are you to say?" Clint asked. "It'd be useful for when he starts attending school as well. He could make friends easier."
"Please don't start," Natasha groaned, closing the files with a drawn-out sigh. "Your mind-numbing me. I'm going to bed."
"You know I'm right!"
"Goodnight Clint!"
A week later, Peter was actually able to leave the tower for a walk.
It was a horrific experience. All his life he was taught to blend into the shadows and not draw attention to himself. Now, their was no where to hide and he was right out in the open for everybody to see. It was noisy, loud, and crowded.
Natasha did walk with him, and she didn't seem to notice him grimacing because of his sensitivity to the sound. She was surprisingly comforting despite the aura of broodiness around her.
She didn't coddle him or really speak to him. she just walked next to him with her hands in her jacket pockets. her presence didn't make the experience better, but it was a bit less disheartening.
They walked the streets of New York every other day so he could get used to being around normal people. When he wasn't cringing, it was rather nice.
Clint Barton, who hung around even less often than Natasba, did had also been teaching him some things when he was around . Like how to pull pranks. it seemed rather trivial and ridiculous at first. Peter would have gotten in an enormous amount of trouble beforehand.
But the look on Steve's face when he relized that his milk was replaced with white dish liquid was kind of amusing. while Barton was dying of laughter, and Steve was frantically scrapping his tounge, Peter managed a smile. Pranks weren't so bad.
The Avengers were busy often. so FRIDAY had introduced him to the television in the sitting room. he knew what a television was, they showed things to Peter back at HYDRA, but he didn't know the tower had one, and didn't know their were so many channels.
"Actors," FRIDAY, had called them, were people who got paid to pretend in front of a camera. To make a story come to life, and engage people in it.
Entertain people.
Next thing Natasha knew, the kid was blabbing her ears off about the Star Wars franchise he had caught on TV while she was gone. He had become utterly invested in. The way he ravved on about it made him seem like a normal teenage boy for a moment. Perhaps, Barton was right. Perhapz his childhood could still be salvaged somehow. Although she would rather drink dish liquid milk then admit Clint Barton was right.
Then the dreaded day came around.
The day Peter was to be enrolled into school.
The plan was rather simple. An agent from SHEILD would escort Peter to schoo,l and pretend to be his guardian. They'd enroll him in school, and he'd officallh start the next school week.
Natasha figured it was easy enough, but she kept neglecting the part of her who was a bit worried about it. what if Peter messed up and revealed his powers? There was still a lot he still didn't know about the world, and what if he got too stressed about the work? She tried not to care too much, but she admitted she liked the kid when he was bright, alert, and invested after learning something new or watching another Star Wars movie, or after hanging around with Bruce or Tony in the lab. She didn't see him often, but when she did she liked it better when he wasn't a zombie soldier and was an actual kid for once. Despite how annoying his rambling could get, she was fond of the boy and didn't want anything to put him in danger after they had made so much progress.
He kind of grows on you.
Peter was impartial about school, but his tutor assured him that his remarkable memory and interest in science had helped him advance well enough so that he could begin actual school. He heard about it, a place where kids his age go to learn.
He was a bit spooked about what he might see. What normal teenagers were like? He knew they would be able to tell that he wasn't like any of them and that he could never truly have what they had.
He was muttering his insecurities to himself as he followed his tutor through the front doors of his new school. he wasn't really looking where he was going and ended up bumping into somebody. It was a tan-skinned boy with dark hair and a cool-looking shirt of a rocket. It wasn't like the ships from Star Wars, but it was cool nonetheless.
"Sorry!" They both exclaimed in unison.
"It wasn't your fault!" they said again.
"Kid!" Peter turned to look at his tutor who was waiting for him so that they could proceed to the school's office.
"New student?" the boy asked.
"Um, yeah I'm Peter."
"Ned," the boy said, holding out his hand. It was a handshake, he had prepared himself for this.
"Nice to meet you, Ned."
