"At least they're not going to make us pay for the backboard." Peter reasoned looking at Steve hoping his pops wasn't too mad at him. He'd hoped it would be Tony to come, his dad was super lenient about these things he'd probably congratulate Peter and then tell him to tell Steve that he'd gotten a lecture. Steve on the other hand... He loved his Pops but Captain America was harsh sometimes and he always gave Peter that disappointed look. The one that was almost worse than yelling.

"I don't care about the backboard. You father owns a million dollar company, Peter."

"Billion dollar actually."

"Peter."

"Shutting up." Peter mimed zipping his lips and Steve sighed running a hand through his hair.

"Is what you're principal said true, did you humiliate that boy?"

Peter groaned his pops hated bullying more than anything. He looked at Steve and then away for a second before shrugging "yeah I did and he deserved it. Pops this guy deserved it."

"Is he the one that hit you?"

Peter bit his lip but nodded "Yeah."

"So this was all about revenge." Peter's head went back and he stared at the ceiling in frustration. Steve wasn't done yet though "If so you must feel pretty good about yourself right now. Am I right?" Peter didn't answer he just grit his teeth and looked away "Am I right or wrong?" Peter shuffled his feet "Yeah I thought so. I want you home tonight at 6." Peter started to protest but Steve wouldn't hear it "We're talking about this with your father. Don't be late. Is that understood?" Peter nodded but that didn't satisfy Steve "Is that understood?"

"Yeah," Peter mumbled.

Steve looked over Peter's shoulder and he recognized the girl there from the one of Peter's computer. "She looks familiar." Steve teased "That's right she's the girl on your computer." he said this part particularly loud and Peter shook his head at his Pops eyes full of betrayal. "No fonduing." He told Peter who went cherry red. But before he could get his mouth to move Steve was gone leaving a mortified Peter behind.

Peter laughed a little late "Ok" he called out turning to face Gwen. "He's a character; he's my... my Pops." Peter stuttered over his words. "He's a pathological liar thought you were someone else."

Gwen smiled and nodded looking bummed "Man you don't have me on your computer." She teased

"Well… yeah, I took a photo of the debate team, you're on the debate team. So…"

"Right."

"He must have seen… I was touching up stuff."

"Touching up stuff?"

"I was… I was… I'm not going to answer that." He laughed and gwen giggled.

"By the way, Fondue?"

"Don't ask, please!" Peter urged.

Gwen laughed "Alright, then did you get expelled?"

"No, I didn't get expelled. I got community service." they stared at each other for a moment. "Umm, so you want to… Umm, I don't know… umm…."

"Wanna what?"

"I don't know." Peter wanted to slap himself. Speak Parker Speak! "Umm... I don't know- we could umm… or we could do something else or we could…. Uh.. if you don't" Peter stumbled through the sentence knowing he was making a complete fool out of himself.

"Yeah," Gwen interrupted him.

"Yeah?" Peter asked back in slight shock.

"Yeah, either one."

"Really?"

"Sure"

"Alright good." Peter nodded "Okay but I can't right now... I can't right now, I'm so busy." Gwen nodded agreeing with him "but uh maybe some other…"

"Some other time." Gwen nodded "Bye." She turned walking away and Peter smiled after her. The teen made his way to an old abandoned warehouse by the pier with his new skateboard and pulled a few tricks on it. His balance was extraordinary and his reflexes were like nothing he'd ever seen before. He was loving it. Jumping on walls and doing back flips off the rafters landing lightly on his feet. Finally, he was something more than just puny Parker. Peter had never felt so proud of himself, he wanted to tell his dads, maybe tonight after they talked Peter could explain it all to them and maybe they'd even agree to train him! Peter looked at his watch and nearly cursed he had to get to Oscorp.

Connors gave him a tour of his labs, he walked with Peter around the facility pointing things out. A certain Machine caught his eye. "I remember that." He said, "I've seen that before."

"The ganali device."

"Yeah I remember a picture of that in my dad's office."

"The idea was so simple; load it with an antigen it creates a cloud which can be dispersed over a neighborhood or an entire city. Theoretically, you could cure polio in an afternoon."

"It's incredible."

"Well, others disagreed. What if the device were loaded with a toxin? What if you wanted to opt out, you can't run away from a cloud after all. So here it lies gathering dust." They both stared at the machine a minute longer before heading over to Connor's personal lab. "What you see here is a computer model of a lizard. Many of these wonderful creatures have so brilliantly adapted; they can regenerate entire limbs at will. You can imagine my envy. We're trying to harness this capability and transfer into our host subject, Freddie, the three legged mouse. Enter the algorithm now."

Peter moved around the Hologram and did as he was instructed. His phone started to ring halfway through and Peter pulled out his Stark phone. Tony's smiling face popped up on the screen letting him know who was calling.

"Do you need to take that?" Peter shook his head and silenced his phone. He knew he was late, but so what, it was one time, his dads had to understand.

"System ready for gene insertion." the computer voice intoned

"Ok," Peter handed it off to Connors "I see what you're trying to do."

"Free up the proteins…"

"Free up the immune response." Peter completed and they watched as the computer began to run simulated tests.

"Pending…. pending... failed. Subject Deceased. Pending... failed. Pending... failed. Pending... pending... failed. Subject diseased. Pending…."

"Ugh," Connors looked away with frustration. But Peter continued on hope in his eyes.

"Come on, come on, come on." He urged it to work.

"Algorithm accepted; regrowth complete. Vitals normal, blood pressure normal. Regeneration successful."

Peter smiled as did the Doctor. "Extraordinary," He said looking at Peter brightly he squeezed the teen's shoulder. "Thank you.

Meet Fred and Wilma our three legged mice." he handed Fred to Peter who cradled the tiny mouse in his palms.

"Hey, buddy I got you."

"Ok careful I don't want to stick you by mistake, human trials aren't until next week." they both smiled and then it was done. All there was left to do was wait. Doctor Connors invited Peter back to the lab to check on Freddie later on and Peter willingly agreed. This is what his dad would have wanted, this is what he was working on before the plane crash, and it felt so good to be able to finally do something. To make a difference.

Peter skated home and hopped into the elevator riding it up to the lobby feeling content for the first time since he'd found his father's old briefcase.

Unfortunately, the feeling didn't last very long "Peter didn't you forget something?" Steve and Tony were waiting for him. None of the others were around and Peter stopped short. His phone rang in his pocket and Peter fumbled but Tony stopped him.

"Don't answer that, though I'm glad to know it's working." Peter opened his mouth and shut it again.

"I told you to be home Peter, I even called you multiple times. Where were you!?"

"I'm sorry Pops I got distracted I was… at the library and…" that was not the right thing to say as both Tony and Steve froze looking at Peter. It was Tony who spoke first.

"You can stop lying to us Peter we're smarter than you think."

"I didn't… I'm not… What….?"

"I know you were at Oscorp Peter; when you didn't answer I tracked your phone."

Peter pulled out his phone. "You have a tracking device on my phone." Peter felt anger rising in him.

"It's for your own safety." Steve cut in.

"It's a complete breach of privacy!" Peter snapped at Steve.

"Don't yell at your father" Tony yelled

"Don't spy on me!" Peter yelled back and Steve winced this was going bad fast.

"What were you doing at Oscorp?"

"Why do you have to know everything? Don't you trust me?"

"Answer my question Peter."

"I don't know maybe I was giving away Stark Industry secrets dad." Sarcasm leaked from his voice. And he glared at the floor. Steve stepped in knowing this was not what they needed to be talking about at the moment.

"This isn't about that Peter. This is about responsibility I asked you to be home at 6. And you not only didn't listen but you consciously ignored our phone calls and lied about your whereabouts. I just want you to take some responsibility for your actions."

"Yeah, that's great coming from you. You're captain freaking america you can't do anything wrong. I'm just a screw-up."

"Peter that's not… We're your parents-"

"NO, You're not!" Peter yelled finally at his breaking point. Steve and Tony both stopped and Peter blinked tears out of his eyes he turned around and walked back toward the elevator to go down toward the main lobby. Before the doors closed Peter rifled through his pockets and threw the cell phone out onto the ground harder than he meant to and the screen shattered. Peter didn't care.

"Peter, where are you going?" Tony tried to catch up to Peter but the doors were already closing. "Peter come back here!" But there was a ding and the Peter was on his way out. "JARVIS-" Tony started but Steve stopped him.

"Tony just leave him alone for a little while, he'll be alright. We all need to cool off."

"I just don't know what to do anymore Steve. He was at Oscorp! OSCORP!"

"Is that such a bad thing, he's curious."

"I don't trust them. That Norman Osborn is a shady S.O.B"

"Tony." Steve gave his husband a pointed look.

"You know there's a really good reason for him being at Oscorp." The superhusbands jumped and Tony cursed loudly.

"Goddammit, Clint I swear to god!" Tony glared as the archer swung down from the ventalation system and made a mental note to install a few booby traps in the vents as revenge.

"Look I just wanted to point out that Peter's father worked at Oscorp." Clint cut in silencing Tony's rant about eavesdropping and how he was going to have JARVIS disable all of Clint's hearing aids. Which really wouldn't have mattered since the spy was adept at reading lips.

Steve looked distinctly uncomfortable and Tony winced. They knew this would happen someday; it was every adopted parent's worst nightmare.

"Do you think he hates me?" Tony whispered running a hand over his face.

"No." Steve wrapped his arms around his husband "Of course he doesn't hate you, Tony, he's just a teenager he's trying to figure out who he is and that's a lot harder when you're adopted." Steve explained.

"I'm worried about him being out there at night by himself," Tony added and Steve laughed burying his face in Tony's shoulder to muffle his laughter. "What?" Steve shook his head.

"I just remember when we adopted him everyone thought I was going to be the worried mother hen, but it was always you." Tony rolled his eyes but smiled. Steve leaned down to plant a kiss on Tony's lips but they were interrupted.

"Get a room!" Clint made a gagging motion. "Want me to go after our resident angsty teen?"

"Just watch out for him, thanks, Clint."

"Aye Aye cap'n." Clint saluted and was gone.