Title: My Favorite Weakness (is You)
Summary: Good morning, new reality.
Rating: T (for violence)
A/N: Surprise- Another Chapter today! Tip: If you imagine a good-old sloppy bed head, the chapter's that much better.
Chapter 11: Never Gonna Give You Up
Day 6 - Multiverse Day 1
Peter woke up the next morning, not in any rush to go the zero places he had to go that day. The only thing on his mind was getting home.
He actually looked through the dresser and picked out an outfit; it was basically something he'd wear at home, only newer looking. And probably a lot more expensive.
He walked out of his room before he realized he only knew how to get to one place, so he made his way to the kitchen. There'd be food there, anyhow, and he could probably call Mr. Stark via FRIDAY if he didn't eventually show up.
He entered the kitchen, not quite processing that there were other voices until he heard them stop.
He turned towards the couches he hadn't noticed during his visit last night, and immediately wished he'd at least looked in the mirror or fixed his bed head.
He found himself staring at the Avengers - and them staring back.
He quickly spotted Bucky and Clint - those two he'd met at home, but there was also the one he knew just from the media- Black Widow, Captain America, the Falcon guy, the Scarlet Witch, Colonel Rhodes (is he an Avenger?), and the red guy who could fly - Peter couldn't remember his name.
They had stopped talking when they noticed him, and he had paused a second later, when he'd noticed them.
No one spoke, initially, though Peter heard someone - maybe Falcon guy - mutter "woah" under his breath.
Peter felt his cheeks turn red and looked down to hide his embarrassment; he felt like... like he wasn't an actual person or something.
The door to the kitchen opened just then and Dr. Banner walked in, closer to Peter than the others. Peter decided Dr. Banner was officially one of his favorite human beings as he greeted him, "Good morning Peter," before turning to the others. He must have sensed the tension in the room or something because he seemed to know what was going on.
"Everyone, as I'm sure you all know, this is Peter Parker from another dimension. Peter, meet our dimension's Avengers." Peter knew Dr. Banner wasn't trying to be funny, but he had to stifle a laugh anyways as he gave a little wave to "everyone."
Whatever he did seemed to break the spell, and the team started into life again. Clint caught his eye and smiled; Peter lowered his eyes, reminding himself he didn't know this Clint.
Then Captain America spoke up, his voice kinder than his reputation (well, his counterpart's reputation); "Hi, Peter. I'm Steve. You hungry for breakfast?"
Peter had to force his words to work, yet his sentence was still choppy. He hoped his starstruck-ness would be attributed to having just woken up or something.
"Y-yes, I was just going to-into the kitchen;" he gave himself a mental facepalm.
Steve just smiled kindly and walked into the kitchen area with him. He opened the refrigerator, generating a protest from Peter: "No, you don't have to- I can make something!"
Steve just turned back towards him, the egg carton already in his hands. "Nonsense," he replied, "you don't know where anything is."
Peter shrugged, desperate for an excuse, "well, how am I going to learn for the future?"
Steve just placed a pan on the stove. "Let's hope it won't be coming to that."
Peter accepted that, refusing to contradict the optimism.
He caught himself wondering if Steve was actually an optimist or if he was using a strategy he knew would work on Peter based off of his counterpart.
Regardless, he would be home soon. He had to get home .
He sat on the same stool from the night before, and watched Captain America make him breakfast. He still felt embarrassed, but his next impulse was to text Ned.
He actually reached for his phone before he realized it still hadn't been returned to him, and he wouldn't have reached his friend Ned anyways if he did.
"Peter," Dr. Banner called to him from the couch, "Tony's in the other room there, while Steve's cooking, you can go let him know you're up." He pointed to the door from which he'd just entered; "it's just down the hall and make a right."
Peter followed his finger, catching a quick Look pass over Steve's face as he turned. But it was gone before he could process what it meant, and Steve just smiled.
"They won't eat it before you get back," he joked.
"No promises," he recognized Bucky's voice joking this time.
Peter smirked and nodded, and made his way to and out the door.
"I wanted to talk to him," he heard a muffled Steve say once the door was closed.
Peter knew this conversation wasn't for him to hear, but he couldn't help it. Well, he could, but he didn't. He stayed put by the door, nothing but the empty hallway in front of him as a witness.
He could hear the others begin talking to each other about him.
"That was... whoo. Weird."
"He looks just like him!"
"They're the same person, idiot."
"This one looks smaller, younger even."
"Ours looked that way before we started training."
"Yeah, and before Tony calculated that ultra-personalized-mega-diet."
"He couldn't have ever been that small, though."
"He very nearly was. Our Peter experienced 5 months of living with us, which would be this Peter, minus 6 months."
That was Dr. Banner's voice.
"So this Peter doesn't live with us?"
"As far as I can tell, no."
No one said anything right after that, so Peter continued down the short hallway ahead of him and made a right, leading into a well-lit, open room.
Mr. Stark was working with his back towards him on some machine with a lot of switches, numbers, and dials; Peter's curiosity immediately got the better of him.
"What's that?" He asked.
Mr. Stark jumped and turned towards him, rubbing his hand on his arm where he'd just apparently hit it. "Dang, kid, I forgot how quiet you are. I like the hair."
Peter hadn't really noticed how much noise he did or didn't make; "sorry," he said, while he tried his best to flatten his hair.
"No, don't be sorry," Mr. Stark corrected himself, "I just forgot. You're good."
Peter repeated his question, looking at the machine; "What's that?"
Mr. Stark looked at the machine almost as if he were confused himself.
"It's something I made for your phone. You see," he opened a section of the machine and pulled out Peter's phone, "your phone has zero connection. No data signal at all. It won't connect to a hotspot, not even to the wifi!"
Peter wasn't catching the drift. He knew it wasn't a StarkPhone, but it did it's job fine. "And?"
Mr. Stark looked at him; "I don't think you get it. This phone's waves don't connect to the signal here. They don't match up, or something. That's what I was trying to figure out."
Peter nodded; that was weird. It was also weird that it was deemed so important.
"Why?"
"Because," Mr. Stark handed the phone to Peter, "I want to make sure that it's just a singular fluke. And that it doesn't apply to you."
Peter's face scrunched up in confusion, mismatching the grin that played on his lips. "But... I don't need to connect to any... signal."
Tony smiled, "let's hope not. I just wanted to know if I needed to keep an eye out for a glitch." He rubbed Peter's head, messing up Peter's attempt to calm the nest of a knot.
Peter smiled and backed up; he wasn't used to... whatever this was. He held out his hand, offering the phone back, but Tony turned it down. "You can take it back, now. How would you say you feel overall though?"
Peter shrugged. He felt fine. "Just hungry; Steve's making breakfast." He turned to walk next to Mr. Stark as they left the room and walked back down the hall.
Tony scrunched his eyebrows together and gasped, pretending to be offended: "I see how it is, you're on a first name basis with Captain America, but Iron Man gets the formal treatment?"
"Well I can't go calling him 'Mr. Rogers,' can I?"
And with a laugh, they re-entered the kitchen together.
A/N: Thank you for any feedback! You all are amazing! Let me know what you think! I'm open to thoughts, ideas, feedback, constructive criticism, reviews, and even prompts. (Again, Prompts are welcome in the reviews & the PMs) :)
Have a good one!
