It seemed like Peter was always at the Facility to its inhabitants. In an effort to show that Peter was Tony's intern and direct attention away from his use of the Web-Shooters, Peter had to tag along with Tony and Pepper to board meetings, expos, and the like. The charity ball was delayed due to a conflict in Tony's schedule so Peter was forced to attend more Stark Industries events to make up for it. The trickiest part of it all was making sure that the right kind of press was getting pictures of Peter.

Whenever Peter wasn't in school or away with Tony and Pepper, he was training at the Facility with Natasha. She had Tony create a punching bag that measured how hard Peter hit it and what that force would do to a regular human. Peter was slowly learning the limits of human durability and while that seemed morbid to most of them, it did seem to be helping Peter. He felt more secure in his own body now that he understood his own strength. It was a relief for everyone to see him relax.

Naturally, all good things had to come to an end.

Fridays had always been Peter's favorite day of the school week since it meant that the week was over and he was free to do what he wanted to again. MJ had cancelled decathlon practice after school since too many people were going to miss it, which meant that Peter had even more free time on his hands. He had planned to spend the evening with May to make up for barely spending time with her all week, but those plans quickly evaporated after fourth period.

Fourth period was P.E. May had initially written him excuses so he wouldn't have to participate after the accident, but after a few days he had to join the class again since he couldn't procure a doctor's note with a reasonable excuse as to why he should miss more class. Peter hated P.E. because it was the class he had to be the most cautious in, Natasha's training aside. The only redeeming factor was that MJ and Ned were also in his class.

It wasn't during P.E. that everything went to shit, like one would expect. No, class ended without a hitch and Peter changed back into his street clothes easily. He lingered outside the doors to the gym where he, Ned, and MJ always met up before heading off to their next class. Ned and Peter waited patiently for five minutes before getting worried.

"I'm going to go find her. Go ahead and go to class if we take too long," Peter said, already heading in the direction of the girl's locker room.

"Peter!" A girl from his P.E. class shouted out. He half turned around to face her, an impatient look on his face. "Are you looking for Michelle?"

"Yeah. Have you seen her?" Peter asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Some boy pulled her over that way. I've been trying to find you to tell you," she said in exasperation, as if he had let her down.

Peter rolled his eyes. Judging by how she was only a few yards away from the girl's locker room, she hadn't tried that hard to find him. Peter went in the direction she pointed nonetheless. She had no reason to lie about what happened to MJ.

It didn't take long to find her. It was that same boy she said had been bothering her and some of his friends who had pulled her aside. All of them were at least a head taller than Peter, not that their height made a difference. Peter would still be able to knock them out in seconds if he wanted to. Even if it seemed inevitable, Peter wanted to avoid a fight.

The three boys had circled around MJ so that she couldn't leave and were spewing lewd crap at her. MJ was trying her best to look bored, but Peter knew her well enough to tell that she was actually terrified. The normally observant girl was so focused on the boys that she didn't even notice Peter enter the room.

"Get away from her," Peter said quietly, standing in the doorway. MJ's head snapped up and a faint grin tugged at her lips.

"Get out of here, Parker. We're just talking," the boy who was terrorizing MJ sneered, pushing her further behind him so that Peter couldn't reach her. Peter's hands curled into fists. He hated bullies.

"I don't care what you were doing. Just back away. MJ and I are leaving," he said, stepping forward.

"No. We're not done talking," the boy snapped, shoving his friends aside to get closer to Peter. "You can't just barge in here and start saying shit."

"Move," Peter said simply. He didn't want to fight, but any idiot could see that the boy was getting ready to punch.

He quickly assessed his options. He had the Web-Shooters clipped on his wrists, but if he used them to fight another student, the principal would revoke his permission to wear them on campus. Not to mention that using the Web-Shooters on a kid was beyond extreme. That left dodging and blocking.

The boy - Peter wished he knew his name - punched. It was a clumsy swing that Peter easily side stepped. Honestly, the hardest part of fighting as a civilian was not moving too fast. That would draw suspicion and there was enough of that on him already after the terrorist incident. Peter tried to think of a way to get MJ out of the room or end the fight peacefully, but he came up empty. He didn't know what to do.

Seeing that their friend had yet to land a single blow on Peter, the other two boys joined the fight. Peter started moving faster, ducking and lunging until everything was a blur of fists and the yellow light streaming in through the windows. Now was when everything went wrong.

The first boy managed to get his fist inches from the side of Peter's head so he had no choice but to block his arm. Peter felt the boy's arm fly back against the force of his own. He thought nothing of it until the boy screamed. Peter looked at him in confusion. The boy's arm was broken cleanly in two from the strength of Peter's parry. Peter froze, bewildered and frightened by what he'd just done, giving the other boys time to punch Peter right on the nose. Peter felt the bones in his nose give way to the boy's fist and blood gushed down onto his lips.

"In there," MJ said, running into the room with a few teachers and the campus security guard following her. Peter thought quickly and decided to let the other boy land his blow. All of the adults looked horrified as they watched Peter fall to the ground.

The teachers and guard tackled the boys and dragged them away to talk to the principal. The boy with the broken arm was taken in a different direction. Peter let Mr. Anderson take MJ away to find out how the fight started. The remaining teacher checked to make sure Peter could walk before taking him to the nurse's office.

Peter was panicking. He could already feel his body trying to heal his wounds and he didn't know how he'd explain away his healing factor to the school nurse. Peter only came up with one viable option; he set his own broken nose. More blood came gushing out and a brief flicker of pain made him grunt. He was cleaning up his face with a washcloth as the nurse came in.

"Did you set it yourself?" She asked, vaguely horrified.

"I took a first aid training course over summer," Peter lied. "Can I call my guardians? They'll want to hear about this from me."

She hesitated. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"No, it was just my nose," he lied again.

She sighed. "Go ahead."

Peter yanked his phone out of his pocket and with trembling fingers called Tony. May would just freak out and wouldn't be able to pick him up from school because she had work. Tony could send Happy, though. It seemed like Happy was never more than five minutes away from Peter's location. Peter was fairly certain that Happy's proximity was intentional, but Tony would deny that until he was blue in the face.

Tony picked up on the third ring. "What is it, Spider-kid? Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Can you send someone to come pick me up?" Peter asked, his voice funny sounding due to his still healing nose.

"Sure. Are you playing hooky or is there actually a reason for this?" Tony asked, no judgement in his voice. Tony firmly believed in mental health days, especially considering Peter's current mental state.

"Um, well, my nose is broken," Peter began to say.

"What? What happened? Were you attacked?" Tony demanded, panicking hard. Peter could hear an odd cacophony of metal, meaning Tony had dropped or knocked over a project he was working on. Peter hoped that it wasn't broken.

"Not exactly. Can I explain later? I'm in pain," Peter said, resting his head against the wall.

"I'll be there in five minutes," Tony promised and promptly hung up.

Peter sighed. He should have known something like this would happen. His luck never seemed to hold for long.

Tony was there in three minutes. Within five minutes of their phone call, Peter was signed out of school and Tony had convinced the principal that Peter needed medical attention (even though his nose was clearly healed by then), and agreed that Peter and a guardian would discuss the fight and any additional punishments beyond his suspension after school on Monday. Within six minutes, Tony set the car on auto pilot and the two were speeding away from Midtown.

"I'm glad May made me become your emergency contact otherwise that would have taken a lot longer," Tony said, trying to gauge what whirlwind of emotions was currently consuming his pseudo son. "So what happened? How'd you get in a fight?"

Peter stared down at his hands. While more blood may not have been added to them today, they had still betrayed him. He'd broken that boy's arm just by blocking it.

"Peter," Tony said gently. Peter looked up reluctantly. "Tell me what happened."

Peter swallowed. "I told you about how there was this boy bothering MJ, right? Today they cornered her, so I tried to get her away from them, but they started swinging. MJ ran out and got some teachers but they just kept coming."

"Wait, did you let them beat you up or did you fight back?" Tony asked. He knew Peter could have effortlessly dodged anything a teenage boy could do. Peter wasn't an Avenger just because everyone liked him.

"I mostly dodged, but I had to block one of their punches. I think I broke his arm," Peter said so softly that Tony had trouble hearing him over the typical city clamor outside.

"Didn't MJ tell the adults what happened? You were acting in self defense. How is that grounds for suspension?" Tony asked, confused.

"Tony, I broke another student's arm. That goes beyond self defense. Besides, Midtown has a strict no fighting policy. All involved parties are punished," Peter said miserably, staring back down at his lap, unable to bear Tony's earnest gaze.

"Screw that. I'll call the school and have this cleared up in a few minutes," Tony said, reaching for his phone.

"No, you can't. Tony, that's not how the real world works. You can't just make a phone call and solve all of my problems," Peter groaned. "I broke his arm."

"Is that what this is about? I can cover his medical bill if your conscious is haunting you. Personally, it seems like he had it coming. No one corners a girl with good intentions."

"Stop that!" Peter shouted, his fists clenched. "Stop doing that. You can't just clean up all of my mistakes with your money and connections!"

"Since when? Why are you suddenly so insistent that there's nothing I can do?" Tony demanded, bewildered. Peter always let him help out before whenever he got into a tough situation. Why was this any different? "F.R.I.D.A.Y., pull over."

The car swerved into the nearest available spot at an alarming speed. Peter looked up at Tony as if he'd gone mad.

"Why are we stopped?" Peter asked.

"Tell me what's bothering you."

"Nothing. Can we please just go back to the Facility?" Peter begged.

"No. We're not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong. And don't give me any of that evasive bullshit Romanoff's been teaching you. This car isn't moving until you talk to me."

Peter groaned and tossed his head back against the chair. Tony noticed that the kid was still pale and dark circles were still prominent under his eyes. Maybe Peter wasn't doing as good as he wanted everyone to believe.

"Come on, kid. It's just me. Nothing you say will ever drive me away," Tony said softly.

"My nightmares are coming back," Peter mumbled after a tense silence. He didn't quite know why he said that instead of something about the fight, but it felt right somehow.

"I know. May called me this morning," Tony said calmly, glad that Peter hadn't shut him out completely.

"They're different. It used to be about the accident, but it's not anymore. Now it's always me hurting you, or the Avengers, or May, or even my friends. So today, when I broke his arm just by blocking it, I proved that my nightmares aren't just some crazy idea my sleep deprived brain made. It can happen. What's the point of having super powers if I'm just as likely to hurt my enemies as my friends?" Peter asked, frustrated nearly to the brink of crying.

"Peter, you're not going to hurt anyone. You were acting in self defense today," Tony insisted.

"You don't understand how breakable humans are," Peter said bitterly, refusing to look at Tony.

"You want to bet? As if I'm not a dangerous person to be around? My house was bombed because I was dumb enough to announce my address on TV. Pepper was nearly killed, but before that, I nearly set my Iron Man suit on her in my sleep. Do you know how many times Happy has been hurt protecting me, even before I became Iron Man? So yeah, kid. Humans are breakable. I'm just a human, and you could probably kill me faster than I could even react, but you won't. You don't hurt people."

"But I could. Not on purpose, but that's almost worse."

"You won't."

"But I could," Peter repeated, still not looking up at his hero.

"You won't," Tony said calmly. "At the base and today at school, you were fighting to protect people. You saved my life, and you got your friend out of a bad situation. You're only focusing on what you did wrong, though. You're not some out of control monster. I should know. My friend happens to be one."

"Why can't you just admit that I'm dangerous?" Peter demanded, finally looking up. His eyes blazed with anger yet Tony could see tears.

"You are dangerous, but not as dangerous as you seem to think. You're a kid with superpowers. That's not supposed to be easy. That's why you joined the Avengers. You fit right in," Tony said, and reached out to grip Peter's shoulder.

Peter lurched back. "Don't."

"Why not? Are you seriously still worried that your strength is out of control?" Tony asked incredulously. "Accidents happen. It was a fluke."

"Accidents are a one time thing. This has happened twice now."

"Twice? You've only killed one person, which is astounding considering our line of work isn't exactly peaceful. Today was an accident. You weren't trying to hurt him."

"So? He's going to be in a cast for weeks," Peter said. He began trembling. "I broke his arm without even trying."

"It was self defense," Tony repeated.

"Was it? If I had let him hit me, I would have been a bit disorientated at most. Instead, he might have pain in his arm for the rest of his life because of me," Peter rambled, still shaking. "What was the point of all those hours in the training room if they don't pay off? Why did I even bother try? I should have known something like this would happen."

Peter was starting to really scare Tony. He'd seen Peter's hands tremble before, but never his whole body. Peter didn't even seem to be talking to him anymore, just letting his guilt spill out randomly.

"Breathe, kid. Head between your knees," Tony advised.

Peter blindly listened. Tony was glad that Peter trusted him completely at times like this, even if it was equally terrifying to suddenly have a kid. Peter tried to take deep breaths, but they sounded more like gasps. Even more worrisome was that his tremors continued. Tony wished that he could hug Peter, but that would probably further his panic attack.

"It's not your fault that they decided to pick a fight with you today," Tony said quietly. "You just have bad luck, like the rest of us. You did your best, and that's all that matters. You don't have to think of today as a screw up."

Peter's breaths were evening out, but he was still shaking hard. Tony decided to keep talking.

"You're going to screw up a lot because you're only human. That doesn't mean that you're failing, it means that you're learning. I know it doesn't seem like it now, but all of the crappy stuff that's happened to you in the last few weeks is going to help you in the long run. It sucks now, but you're going to be okay," Tony said, not entirely sure where these words were coming from or even if they made any sense whatsoever. They seemed to help Peter calm down, and that was all that really mattered.

"But I'm dangerous," Peter whispered, not lifting his head from between his knees.

Tony shrugged. "Everyone's dangerous in one way or another. It doesn't mean that you're a bad guy."

"Don't my powers scare you at all?"

"Of course they do. Your powers are insane. You have abilities that no single person should possess. But you're not very scary, Peter. Even if you think that you're dangerous, you should know that I've only ever been scared of what your powers could do to you, not to anyone else. You were given a lot of responsibility far younger than you deserve. I'm only worried about what your powers do to you," Tony said honestly.

Peter let out a choked laugh and flung himself at Tony. Both of them recalled how only two years ago Peter had mistaken Tony opening the door for a hug and were beyond grateful that something like that would never happen again.

"Thank you," Peter whispered.

Tony merely held him tighter.