Tony was suspicious. Granted, this happened a lot, like with S.H.I.E.L.D and the Government as a whole, but this was about something much more low-level, politically speaking. He was suspicious of Peter.
This, again, wasn't something uncommon, but it was rare and minor enough that he never really felt the need to do any kind of in-depth research to make sure he wasn't doing anything bad, or whatever. Because Peter was a good kid, the kinda kid who would turn in a hundred-dollar bill he found on the ground to a police station, even if he felt he'd spend it better.
So, Tony never had to worry. Except now, because he knew Peter was hiding something from him. It hurt, if he was being honest, because he'd liked to think he'd fostered a kinda trust between them. And maybe it wasn't as much as he'd thought, or maybe this was something embarrassing that Peter wouldn't tell anyone, but Tony just couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
I mean, phenylethylamine pills? Yeah, sure they were a thing in medical circles, but the way Peter acted when he'd asked for them was supremely suspicious. And there was also something about phenylethylamine he'd read in some study somewhere, something weird and important. He couldn't remember what, and he was planning on asking Bruce about it later, but right now he had to figure out if Peter was doing something outrageously stupid like drug trafficking.
. . .
Wade: hey, btw, there's a supervillain terrorizing manhattan
Wade: just thought you guys should know
"Dang it," Peter mutters.
"What?" May asks, glancing over at him.
"Oh, just a . . . superhero thing."
"You have to go?"
"Probably should,"
"Oh," she says, obviously as disappointed as he was to find out their peaceful Sunday was being disrupted.
"I shouldn't be gone long, just give me an hour or two."
"If you say so. Have Karen let me know if you'll be longer."
"She knows the drill, don't worry about it," he says, getting up.
"Oh, you know me. I'll always worry. Be safe!"
"I will. See you later," he says closing his door.
"See ya," May says, suddenly feeling alone. "He'll be alright," she says quietly to herself. "He always is."
. . .
"Well, I think that all worked out pretty good," Wade says happily, triumphantly standing with his hands on his hips, looking over the recent scene of battle.
Eddie scoffs and Peter gives him a bored look.
"Yeah, totally," he says sarcastically, sitting down and leaning on his arm.
"It could've been worse," Eddie admits.
Peter says nothing, decidedly not pointing out that sentences like that (along with others similar to 'what could go wrong' and 'I have a bad feeling about this') tended to be things best left avoided and unsaid.
"Exactly," Wade says.
Peter raises an eyebrow. Whatever, if they wanted to risk some kinda jinx, that was on them. He scratches the back of his head and pulls off his mask, glad to be breathing fresh air.
Eddie glances over at him and does a double take. "What the fuck are you doing!" he exclaims.
Wade turns around and immediately covers his eyes.
Peter pauses, glancing between them with an odd look on his face. "What?" he asks slowly.
Eddie, eyes wide, gestures vaguely. "You can't just . . ."
"Take your mask off like that," Wade finishes for him. "Someone could see you!"
"We're on a very tall skyscraper. Who's gonna see me?"
"Uh, well, me, for one."
"You already know my name, it doesn't really matter now."
Wade peeks through his hands. "It doesn't?"
"It doesn't?" Eddie echoes, sounding confused.
"Nope."
"Oh," Wade says, dropping his hands. He glances around. "Y'know, this is a pretty crap identity reveal fic if you're not even gonna have him make a big deal about it."
(This isn't an identity reveal fic)
"Right, right. Nevermind then, carry on."
Eddie gives him a baffled look before turning to look at Peter. "Look, kid, you have to be more careful with stuff like this. You can't just go taking your mask off all willy nilly. Actually, y'know what, rule six: secret identities are important. Like, in a life or death kinda way. You don't want your friends and family to get hurt because some super villain found out who you are."
"Yeah, I know all of that, I'm not new to this."
"Then don't be so cavalier about it!" Wade exclaims. "One of the only reasons I don't care about who knows who I am is because I usually don't have anyone for my enemies to target. And the people I have now know how to take care of themselves."
"I know! Look, I may just be a kid, but I know what I'm doing. I don't want the people close to me to get hurt, so I know I have to be secretive. I trust you guys, which is the only reason I'm being 'so cavalier' about this."
Wade scoffs. "Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn't. I'm not a good guy, Peter. Never have been. And I know I'm trying right now, but I've tried before, and it's never really worked out."
"You also didn't have me before. Consider me your sponsor."
Wade chuckles. "You really are one of a kind. Not many heroes would be willing to try and rehabilitate any old anti-hero they come across. And you managed to find two," he says, nodding to Eddie.
"He didn't really give us that much of a choice," Eddie mutters.
"Yeah, because you guys were eating people," Peter stresses.
Eddie raises his hands. "Fair point, but we had a good reason."
"That I helped you with."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Peter sighs.
A few seconds of silence pass before Wade says, "Wait, so are we allowed to make up rules too?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess," Peter says. "Just so long as they're relevant, then, sure, why not."
"Sweet!"
"And just so you know," Peter says, turning to Eddie, "I am very good at keeping my identity a secret. Only, like, three other people know. And some of the Avengers, I think, but that's it!"
Eddie gives him a Look. "Whatever, kid. Anyways, I gotta go help Mary finish packing," he says, standing up.
"Packing?" Wade says. "Are you moving away?"
"Hm? Oh, no, we're just moving to a bigger apartment. It's kinda hard having two people living in a one-bedroom place."
"Yeah. Do you need any help with the move?" He poses dramatically. "These muscles aren't just for show."
Eddie chuckles. "Maybe. I'll let you know if we do."
"I could help too," Peter offers. "I'm stronger than I look, proportional strength of a spider and all that."
"I'll think about it. See ya guys later," he says, walking away.
"Yeah, see ya," Peter says. "Hey, I gotta go too, my aunt's gonna start worrying if I don't get back soon."
"Okay. See ya, Pete."
Peter gives him a disapproving look. "No nicknames."
"Okay, webs. Have fun with your aunt."
Peter pulls on his mask and sighs. "Whatever," he mutters, jumping off the building.
. . .
"Ned, I really need to talk to you about something," Peter says, sitting down across from his friend.
"Okay, what?"
"So, you know about the whole thing I've got with Venom and Deadpool, right?"
"Yeah."
"I kinda—well, accidentally—told Wade my secret identity."
Ned's eyes go wide. "Dude, seriously? How do you 'accidentally' do that?"
"Well, I referenced to myself using my name. And I took off my mask around him."
"You did what? Isn't that, like, Very Not Allowed, or something?"
"Usually. Honestly, though, he already knew my name, so I didn't see the point."
"Okay, this is important. Does he just know your first name?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Then what were you thinking! There's a million Peters out there, and he knows what your face looks like!"
Peter just stares at him for a few seconds before face palming. "Oh my God," he says.
"Yeah."
"You don't think he'll do something, do you?"
"I dunno man, you're the one who hangs out with him all the time."
"I mean, I trust him, you know. But I can't help wonder if I made the wrong choice. I didn't really have an option with Venom and Eddie because they figured it out on their own, but I willingly told Wade my secret identity. Well, accidentally, I guess, but it didn't even feel like it was a big thing then."
"I think, you need to trust yourself. If you don't consider it a bad thing, then you're good."
"Really?"
"Really. Oh, and about that whole 'you rehabilitating Venom and Deadpool' thing, do Tony and May know yet?"
Peter's eyes widen. "No. Why would I tell them?"
Ned shrugs. "I was just curious. They're gonna find out eventually, you know. They might even be proud of you, if a bit overprotect-y and worried for your safety."
"I'm never telling them, no matter how proud they might be. I'll take that secret to my grave if I have to."
Ned chuckles. "It definitely won't come to that."
"I know," Peter admits. "But I'm still gonna do my best. They can't know."
"Whatever you say, dude."
. . .
"Bruce! Hey, Bruce!"
The man in question turns around to see Tony running towards him.
"Tony? What do you want?"
"I've got some science-y things I need your help with."
"My kind of science, or yours?"
"More your kind. Wanna help?"
"Sure, why not," Bruce says, following Tony.
"Great! Have you ever heard of a chemical called phenylethylamine?"
"Uh, rings a vague bell."
"Sometimes called the love drug? It's in chocolate."
"Yeah, I know. What about it?"
"Well, I've been doing some research into it lately, and there's something about it I'm not finding. I think there was this study a few months ago, I can't remember what it was about for the life of me, but it mentioned phenylethylamine and I think it mentioned its drawbacks. There also might've been aliens, but I really just skimmed that."
Bruce pauses. "Well . . ." he starts slowly. "There was this thing by The Life Foundation that was found after all that business went down. A lot of people tried to cover the details of that up, but they asked me and a few other guys to look at some of their research to see what was going on there." He glances around nervously. "I really shouldn't be telling you any of this. Is—do you really need to know about this?"
"Yeah."
Bruce sighs. "Okay then. Well, they'd been doing some experiments on these things they called 'Symbiotes'. We weren't even sure they really existed at first, but based on what we found . . . Anyway, most of the stuff was just the ravings of a madman, making a perfect assimilation or something. See, the Symbiotes are a kinda parasitic organism, they take over a host and wring them dry before moving on to the next one."
"That's . . . honestly, terrifying. But what about the phenylethylamine, that's what's important here."
"Well, the symbiotes were chewing through their hosts, even though they were being kept fed and watered and stuff, so some of the scientists theorized that the Symbiotes needed more than what they were getting. They made a list of chemicals they thought would help, and ones they thought would hurt. Phenylethylamine was one of the top contenders for the 'help' category."
"Oh God."
"What?"
"Well, the reason I asked was because of Spider-Man."
"The kid you introduced us to a while back, Peter Parker? What's this have to do with him?"
"Well, earlier this month he asked me to help him make some phenylethylamine pills for a friend of his at school because they couldn't afford them anymore."
"That's not odd, those pills are used for lots of things."
"Yeah, I know that. What's odd is how much was in the pills. About how much one or two regular people produce a day."
"That is pretty weird. Did you ask him why?"
"No, what was I supposed to say? I trust him, Bruce. He's a good kid, but I can't shake the feeling that there's something really wrong about this."
"Do you think he has one of those Symbiote things?"
Tony sighs. "After what you've told me, I'm leaning toward yes. That, or he has a friend who's got one."
"We need to do something about that, we can't just let one of those things loose, who knows what would happen!" Bruce exclaims, sounding a bit panicked.
"I know, I know. I just need to find a way to get the information without spooking him."
"Don't you have audio and video recording in his suit?"
"Well, yeah, but I had to take it out because one of his friends kept disabling it."
"Then just put it back in."
"Well, I suppose I could. I'd have to hide it though, and it would only be one. What do you think, audio or video?"
"Audio, definitely."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y. when's my next meeting with Peter?"
"One week, sir."
"Damn. Guess I'll have to wait."
"I wouldn't worry too much, Tony. He's a smart kid."
"He's also a very kind one, and while I usually wouldn't knock that, if he's goin' around picking up alien hitchhikers, then I'm really gonna have to give him a good talking to."
Bruce chuckles. "Well, hopefully there's nothing going on."
"Yeah," Tony says quietly.
