This is going to be a longer chapter, mostly because I didn't want to break up the scenes. Hope someone out there likes it.

SDMIRMSDMIRMSDM

Chapter 4: Motivations

SDMIRMSDMIRMSDM

Putting away his self-doubts that he should have ever darken this amazing kid's doorway, Tony entered the bedroom behind Peter, shut the door and locked it. (And that didn't feel pervy at all.) But he needed some privacy, they need it if they were to have the conversation he came there to have.

Going to the wastebasket across the room, he spit out the piece of loaf he'd tucked into the pocket of his cheek. Didn't want to offend so he said, "As walnut date loaves go, that wasn't bad." Then his eyes drifted around the room, took in the collection of outdated electronics on the computer desk. It sparked interest in him. "Oh. What do we have here, retro tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation army?"

Peter blushed as he admitted, "Uh, the garbage actually."

That caught Tony off guard, had him asking pointedly, "You're a dumpster diver?" Because that put the boy's fascination with money for this make believe internship into a whole different category. It wasn't motivated by greed but desperate need.

"Yeah, I was.." Peter began to explain but abandoned it. It didn't matter. Tony Stark didn't care about that, about him. Not the Peter Parker who rummaged through other people's refuse. So he bluntly went with the truth, "Anyway, look. Umm. I definitely did not apply for your grant."

"Nuh uh. Me first."

"Okay." Peter tensed for the real reason someone as important as Tony Stark was standing in his bedroom.

"Quick question of the rhetorical variety." Tony pulled out his Stark phone and projected a holographic video of Spiderman swinging through the city to stop a car thief. "That's you, right?" his eyes leaving the video to look at the fourteen-year-old kid, almost feeling like he was truly asking for confirmation, because face to face with this baby faced well…baby, he kinda hoped he was wrong. That this kid wasn't out there risking his life like he thought he was. Well, FRIDAY thought he was.

Peter felt cold all over. This was the moment he'd dreaded, though he had thought police would show up, not Iron Man….in the form of Tony Stark. "Um, no. - What do you…. What do you...mean.." Crap, he should have thought of his response, had some alibi lined up. He was making a mockery of this. What must Mr. Stark think of him?! 'He shouldn't think anything. Deny it! Deny all of it!' He crossed his arms nervously but didn't think of any more clever denials than his stammering ones.

Tony's stomach dropped. It was this kid. The proof increased the note of awe in his next words, "Yeah. Look at you go." The video showed the "man" in the red onesie stopping a runaway van from crashing into a bus. "Wow, nice catch! 3000 pounds, 40 miles an hour... That's not easy. You got mad skills," looking to Peter, expecting vanity to be pouring off the kid. Instead, there was a boatload of discomfort…even fear.

As much as Peter wanted to bath in Mr. Stark's praise, he knew he shouldn't… couldn't. "That's all-that's all on YouTube though, right? I mean, that's where you found it. 'Cause you know that's all fake. It's all done on a computer?"

"Mm-hmm," Tony replied, hadn't expected the kid to deny it to his face, especially while his proof was still playing incriminatingly on the hologram. He had thought he and the kid would have a …a connection. Trust. You know Iron Man to Spiderman. 'I knew I should have come as Iron Man. Tony Stark isn't cutting it here.'

Peter, thinking he could throw Mr. Stark off his scent, began to compare the video to UFO sightings. "It's like that video…"

Knowing where the kid was trying to lead him, Tony seemed to agree with him. "Yeah yeah yeah yeah... oh you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?"

"Exactly!" Peter exclaimed with entirely too much relief. Maybe this disaster could be diverted.

While Peter did his denial thing, Tony scoped out the room, knew where he'd hide things if he were a kid. So he grabbed a stick and pocked the overhead paneling, felt cocky with his victory as a red onesie on a string dropped right in front of him. "Oh, what have we here?" he said in wonder and cockiness.

Peter instantly dove across the room, snapping the suit off the string as he bound into it on his path to the closet space where he quickly dropped the evidence. Turning around, he tried to nonchalantly lean against the wall, covering up the suit, like he could pretend Mr. Stark hadn't seen what he had seen. He tried to form a better denial but all that came out of his dry mouth was a weak, "Uh..." Then he faltered into a hard exhale. He was blown. Big time. And clearly Tony Stark was there for only one reason: Spiderman. 'Crap crap crap. Now what?!'

"So. You're this... Spider... ling. Crime fighting Spider... You're Spider-Boy?" Because seeing the kid up close, no one would ever mistake him for a man. 'But in the costume, the bad guys think he is an adult and give him absolutely none of the mercy they would if they knew he was a fourteen-year-old boy! And my suit…it will confuse that issue even more.' A new tsunami of doubt washed over him that he was doing the right thing for the kid. In so many areas.

Peter embarrassingly defended the name he'd been given by the press, "S... Spider-Man." Even as he knew that it must seem a ridiculous hero name to Iron Man. Unable to bear Tony probably laughing at him, he looked away, wanted to protest that he didn't give himself that name! But he didn't think it would matter.

"Not in that onesie, you're not," Tony shot back, put a bit of derogatory spike to his tone, trying to open the door for the kid to accept his help, the suit he'd painstakingly made for him. Wasn't surprised the kid took offense to his words.

"It's not a onesie," Peter defensively shot back, hurt by Tony's ridicule, that Mr. Stark wasn't judging him for all the good he'd done, tried to do. Walking past Tony with a glare thrown his way, he went to his computer. "I don't believe this. I was actually having a really good day today, you know, Mr. Stark. Didn't miss my trains, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there and... algebra test. Nailed it!" And now everything was blowing up in his face. 'Why was Mr. Stark here? What will he do, now that he has proof I'm Spiderman? Will he tell May? Drag me off to jail or SHIELD?'

A part of Tony felt hurt at the implication that his presence was tanking the kid's good day. That wasn't what he wanted. Wanted to help the kid, not bum him out. Forcing himself to be a professional, he did a fact finding interrogation. "Who else knows? Anybody?"

Peter shook his head before verbalizing, "Nobody."

Recognizing how close Peter was to his aunt, Tony meaningfully asked, "Not even your.. unusually attractive Aunt?" Retrieving the suit from the floor of the closet, he began examining it, grimaced when his worst fears were realized. It wasn't armored at all, was just…a cotton blend. 'Crap kid, you're not bullet proof and you're running around going up against guns and knives and worse.' He fervently wished he had the suit along, that he could force the kid to never ever go out in something as unprotected as his onesie ever again.

Peter was horrified by even the idea of May knowing he was Spiderman. "No. No, no, no, no. If she knew, she would freak out, and when she freaks out, I freak out," his voice cracking a little because he remembered how she had been right after Ben had died. How worried she got when he was even a few minutes late coming home from school, how she always feared the worst had happened to him…like it had her husband. 'Never knowing it was my fault..what happened to Ben.'

Believing Peter's declaration that he had kept this very serious secret from his aunt, from everyone, it gave Tony pause. He himself couldn't keep Iron Man under wraps long at all, (was busted by Rhodey on his first test flight.) The fact was, he wanted the world to know what reparations he was making for his wrongs, his family's wrongs. But not this kid. No bravado and spotlights and interviews for him. Did his good deeds for no fame.

Dropping his attention from the tense kid, Tony pulled out the webbing cartridge in the sleeve of the suit. "You know what I think is really cool? This webbing." He threw the cartridge to Peter, impressed the kid caught it without even looking up. "Tensile strength is off the charts," letting how impressed he was be obvious. "Who manufactured them?" Feeling a stab of disappointment, that maybe the kid already had a mentor, someone out there working on a better suit for him. 'I should have come to him as soon as I knew who he was, shouldn't have waited.' Upset that he might have missed his chance to get close to the kid, help him.

But Peter surprised him, all over again, by announcing that he manufactured the webbing.

"I did," Peter said with a shadow of pride but then he threw the cartridge in the corner like it was worthless. Like his brilliance didn't matter.

His humbleness wasn't lost on Tony. The kid was an enigma. Kids were braggards, that went along with their youth, but not this kid. 'Why not? Why keep this all a secret? Why downplay how freaking amazingly brilliant he apparently has to be to have created this webbing?' Examining the gloves of the suit, he inquired, "Climbing walls. How are you doing that? Adhesive gloves?" Though he didn't detect anything like it in the finger pads of the glove.

"It's a long story. I was uh..." Peter hesitated. 'Should a superhero just blurt out all his origin story to anyone who asked. Even if it was a fellow superhero?'

Finding the goggles in the suit, Tony taunted, "Lordy! Can you even see in these?" As he tried to look through the small, tinted glass, he mockingly cried out, "I'm blind!"

"Yes. Yes, I can.." Peter possessively grabbed the costume from Tony and put it back in his closet, not appreciating the mockery. "Look, I can. I can..I can see in those. Okay? It's just that... when... whatever happened happened, it's like my senses have been dialed to 11. There's way too much input, so... they just kinda help me focus."

A pang of hurt for the kid went through Tony. Was so glad he had a suit already in the wings for the kid, was already thinking how he had to rush home and tweak the eye sensors now that he knew Peter's specific needs. "You're in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom. 100-point restoration. That's why I'm here." 'Not because I've been cyber stalking you for months, not because I've been terrified there would be a headline of Spiderman found dead on the New York Times.'

Taking a seat, Tony turned to the kid sitting on the bed, trying to assess him. "Why are you doing this? I gotta know. What's your MO? What gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?" All those hours watching the videos, the days and nights he'd spent frantically, fanatically making the suit, he had become obsessed with wondering why the kid was risking his life for strangers, why he was doing it all on his own, without bragging to the world what he could do.

Avoiding Tony's probing look, Peter began, "Because... because l've been me my whole life.." then bravely met Tony's took, found the superhero wasn't mocking him but patiently waiting for him to find the words, "…and l've had these powers for 6 months."

"Mm-Hm," Tony encouraged him to continue, hanging on his every word, his every facial giveaway. He desperately wanted to know this kid.

"I read books, I build computers... And-And yeah, I would love to play football, but I couldn't then so I shouldn't now." More so, had wanted to stop the bullies taking their pound of flesh from him but couldn't, shouldn't.

"Sure. 'Cause you're different." In more ways than the kid even knew. Tony was realizing that this kid had common sense off the charts.

"Exactly. But I can't tell anybody that, so I'm not." Looked away again then swallowed hard before facing Tony, admitting the truth behind everything. "When you can do the things that I can, but you don't... and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you." Good people die, like Ben.

The kid's statement hit Tony where he lived. He understood that statement better than he wanted to, surely better than he wanted this endearing kid to know. Sought to lighten the mood by assessing the kid's motives into a neat little box, "So you wanna look out for the little guy. You wanna do your part. Make the world a better place, all that, right?

"Yeah. Yeah, just looking out... for the little guy. That's-that's what it is," Peter weakly agreed to Tony's assumption. Didn't want to lose the admiration in Tony's eyes by telling the truth. That it was guilt driving him, that he was trying his best to honor Ben's memory. That he wasn't doing this because he was such a great guy, because if he was, Ben wouldn't be dead.

Feeling the pain coming off the kid, Tony couldn't stay away, came over to the kid. "I'm going to sit here, so you move the leg." When Peter obeyed, Tony claimed a seat beside him, hesitant before putting a hand on Peter's bowed shoulder. Felt something settle in him at the physical connection. Like he needed it…and maybe so did Peter. 'He needs more than a pat on the back, he needs protection…from Ross, from the Accord mandate. So do what you came here to do.' But it wasn't that easy now, faced with this child, this idealist child, this vulnerable boy sitting beside him. But he forced the words out, "You got a passport?"

Peter looked at him like he'd asked him something ridiculous. "Uh no, I don't. I don't even have a driving license."

"You ever been to Germany?" hoping the kid would get into the mood to globe trot.

"No," Peter emphatically denied, heart beginning to race because was Mr. Tony Stark asking him to go to Germany. With him?! For what? This internship? To arrest him?! Maybe put him somewhere no one could find him?!

"Oh, you'll love it," Tony tried to sell the notion, feeling like a masher since the kid was clearly not into this trip idea.

"I can't go to Germany!" Peter refused, picturing some dank gulag like the pictures in European history class where they put the worst criminals. And forgot them.

"Why?" Tony honestly asked, needed to know what was freaking the kid out so badly and kill it.

"I got... homework." 'Oh crap, did I just give the homework excuse to IRON MAN?!' Peter's cheeks blazed pink with embarrassment. He really needed to work on his excuses if he wanted to keep being a superhero. 'But maybe those days are over if I'm being taken to Germany and will never return!"

Tony deadpanned back, "I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that." Getting up, he headed for the door as if the matter was solved.

"I'm-I'm being serious! I can't just drop out of school!" Peter frantically called out. 'People will miss me if I'm wiped off the face of the earth and dropped into a foreign prison!'

"Might be a little dangerous," Tony almost paled at his offhanded warning. 'Please God, may it NOT be dangerous. Don't let me get this kid hurt." Reaching for the door, he thought aloud, "Better tell Aunt Hottie I'm taking you on a field trip."

On an emotional rollercoaster, elated that it sounded as if he wasn't going to be thrown into a gulag, that he was actually going on a mission WITH Iron Man, then plunged into cold water dread of Mr. Stark telling Aunt May anything at all that would lead her to suspect that he was Spiderman. Panicking, he reacted instinctively and shot a web, pinning Tony's hand to the door handle and half pleaded, half brazenly commanded, "Don't tell Aunt May."

Hand effectively pinned to the door and unable to move, Tony looked to Peter. "Alright, Spider-Man," pointedly calling him by his hero name with respect. Then, a beat later, he ordered lightly, "Get me out of this," jerking his head down to his trapped hand.

Relieved Mr. Stark wasn't going to tell May about Spiderman, Peter readily apologized, "Sorry. I'll get that," as he crossed his room to retrieve the vial of solution that would dissolve the webbing. Grabbing it out of his drawer, he quickly returned to Mr. Stark, started to use the eyedropper to put some of the solution on the web. When some of the liquid ran down onto the billionaire's hand, he reassured, "It's not toxic or anything." Felt his face heating up as the solution wasn't dissolving the web all that quickly. Bending over, he applied some of the solution to the underside of Mr. Stark's hand, hoping to speed up the process.

When Peter bent over, his shirts road up, revealing a motley bruised section of his back. Tony's breath nearly caught at the sight. "That looks painful," his voice tight with his own emotions.

Misunderstanding, Peter said, "Nah, it won't be much longer and like I said, the solution isn't…"

"I meant your back," Tony gently corrected Peter's wrong assumption. Saw the boy stiffen and his eyes flew up to his in shame, as if he'd done something wrong. Tony experienced the unfamiliar desire to nurture, to heal. He watched Peter's expression close off as he shrugged, fought back a wince at his own motions.

Tony wished he'd done surveillance of the kid's patrol the night before, could pinpoint where he got hurt, if the bruising on his back was the worst of it or if there were other injures. 'And I'm dragging him into a fight with Captain freaking American and his super soldier serum wacko buddy.' He would have delayed that confrontation if he could, but Ross had put the clock at 36 hours, some of which had already drained down the tube. 'I could forget taking him at all. Do this another way.' But he didn't know another way and with Ross going all Special Ops Commando on Steve, it didn't look good for other super endowed heroes if they wanted to pass on the Accords and get nurtured by SHEILD. No, it had to be this way and it had to be now. Tony gave a litany of curses in his head. "You gonna be ok to do a little Spidermaning?"

"Oh, yeah, this…it'll be all better in a few hours. My healing is…" realizing what he was confessing, Peter looked up, saw that Mr. Stark's expression almost mirrored May's when he was worrying her. But that wasn't right, Mr. Stark didn't really care about him, only Spiderman and his abilities. "..is good," he lamely finished. Yanked a little on the dissolving webbing and then was able to pull it free of Mr. Stark's hand. "There and your hand didn't melt away or anything."

"That's good, I'm partial to being a righty," Tony quipped, processing everything the kid had said and hadn't. Found himself talking before he'd realized he would, "How do you treat it…your back, things you can't…reach?"

Peter wrapped his arms around himself again, shrugged. "I manage…mostly."

Tony vehemently wasn't thinking that was good enough, the kid just "managing" when he was hurt. "You want…I could…not that I carry around topical pain relief but if you had some..I could..help." 'Great, now I'm stammering like the kid.' But the offer was made with hardcore sincerity.

Nowhere in Peter's dreams did he ever think IRON MAN would offer to help him tend to his injuries. "No no no..Mr. Stark that wouldn't be right..or cool. You don't…shouldn't…"

But Tony knew he should, wanted to. Was why he had built the kid his own Stark tech suit; To protect him, to lessen any injuries he got, to minimize his pain. But this was more…hands-on… than he envisioned but it wasn't a ..burden he revolted at. Having sized up the kid's room before, he crossed over to his closet area, rummaged under some socks and found Peter's pathetic idea of a medical kit. A kid that had, thank goodness, topical pain reliever, a few bandages, a tube of salve and …makeup concealer, which explained how he'd kept his facial superheroing injuries unnoticed by his aunt. He held the concealer tube up and turned to find the kid had followed him. "You're more an ivory than a beige." Peter snagged the makeup out of his hand and threw it back into the drawer but Tony had already pulled the pain reliever tube from that hidden locale.

Peter went to pull the tube from Tony's grasp, but the other man raised it over his head. Sure, Peter could easily jump for it with his abilities but that seemed petty. Instead, he glared at Mr. Stark. "I don't need your help."

'Yeah, you do, kid. Worse than I realized.' But what Tony said aloud was, "Hey, I get banged up too. The Iron Man suit doesn't come equipped with airbags. I need help patching myself up so I can maintain this façade of invincibility."

Stunned to have Mr. Stark admitting to being hurt, in pain, to NOT being invincible, Peter couldn't think of a rejoinder. But then Tony uncapped the tube and twirled his hand indicating Peter should turn around. With a sense of unreality, Peter obeyed and lifted up his shirt, glad Mr. Stark couldn't see his wince that went along with the action.

Nor could Peter see Tony's own wince or the tightening around his mouth as he saw the range of the kid's abused flesh. It was his entire back, from shoulder blade to his pant's line. Felt relieved it didn't include Peter's shoulders or else his earlier pat there would have put the boy in pain..more pain than he was already in.

With deft fingers, Tony applied the gel, gentler than he'd ever applied it to his own bruises. "We need you more for a show of force, a balancing of odds than a combatant." 'I pray to God that's the situation we find ourselves in tomorrow.' "With your abilities, just….web them up and don't engage them directly. I don't want you in the way of the Cap's punches." He fought back a cringe at the mental image played out in his head. 'Steve will restrain himself, we're allies…still…right?'

Peter's breath caught, had feared that this was about Captain Amercia's refusal to sign the Accords. "It's come down to a fight, him not signing the Accords?" Felt part of his hero worship dim because if Mr. Stark said the Accords were a good thing, they just were.

"Hopefully not a fight but a compromise. SHEILD is not taking his refusal to sign the Accords lightly. He's wrong to not sign them, by the way. He thinks he's right. That makes him dangerous." His inner voice challenged, 'If you truly believe that the Cap's dangerous, why put this kid in his crosshairs?! In the path of psycho killer Barnes'?!' But he had an answer for that, a mostly good one. 'So Ross doesn't put his sights on this kid, send merciless commandoes knocking on his apartment door, doesn't throw him into the soldier making machine that is SHEILD now that Fury is AWOL.'

The kid shot him a look over his shoulder, his eyes were wide with shock, making Tony feel badly that he was ripping away his hero worship, more of his innocence, so he confessed his heart's desire, "I just want Steve to come back to the negotiation table before things turn…" he almost said deadly but moderated it, "..hostile."

Finishing coating the boy's back, he didn't miss the other scars, healing, fading but still there.

Tony knew all about self-punishment, about not caring what cost his body he had to pay for him to be Iron Man. It hurt seeing those same consequences on this fourteen-year old's body. "There, done," he announced, gently tugging the kid's shirt down to hide his injuries from the world. Tossing the tube back in the corner with a bit of frustrated anger, he fought down his own emotions, his concern for this kid, his worry that he was about to make the kid's life worse instead of better.

Turning to face Mr. Stark, Peter saw the man had dropped his façade, was looking at him with a measuring look, probably deciding if he would be an asset, would help him make sure his friend didn't face "hostile" action from SHEILD. "I'll go to Germany, help you any way that I can," he solemnly vowed, holding the man's gaze with utter loyalty.

Tony shuddered internally at Peter's trusting look, knew he was deceiving the kid, albeit for his own wellbeing. But there was more at stake than Steve and his misfit friends. The kid's future was on the line, how SHEILD and Ross would view Spiderman depended on the outcome of tomorrow. So, yeah, no pressure. But that was for Tony to bear, not this kid, who took on too much already. So he smiled, an earnest smile, a rare thing, bestowed on this brave kid Peter Parker. "Good. And I have a little participation award for you that you'll get tomorrow."

"Oh no…you don't need to give me anything, Mr. Stark. I'll help without a …" Peter shamefully realized why Mr. Stark thought he wouldn't come without a bribe. He hastily retracked, "Though I offered that lame homework excuse, I'm dedicated to …"

"I know you are, Peter," Tony reassured, the words coated with admiration. "I'll tell your aunt nothing about your moonlighting as a superhero. I'll just say I have an intern bootcamp you need to attend starting tomorrow."

"So there are other interns coming?" Peter surmised without enthusiasm, feeling a little bit let down that he was just an addition, an add-on.

"Ah…nope. Just you. Numero Uno on the fake intern list," Tony glibly returned, felt something surprisingly like happiness when his words made Peter smile. "Ok, my guy will pick you up at 5am tomorrow morning and get you to Germany." Almost groaned, already dreading Happy's reaction to being chauffeur to a kid, a special one-of-a-kind kid but a kid all the same. As for himself, his mind was whirling with his own to-do list. Topping it, was tweaking the Spiderman suit now that he knew Peter's specific needs. And oh yeah, get himself back to Germany to track the Cap. Obviously, he wasn't getting much sleep tonight.

Preoccupied, Tony was already opening the door when a pitiably forlorn voice brought him back to the here and now.

"I'm not going with you to Germany?" Terror was settling on Peter anew. Ok, yes, going to Germany, another country was intimidating enough, let alone what he was supposed to do there. And now he wasn't going there with Mr. Stark?!

Turning around, Tony's will almost wilted at the kid's dejected look, like a puppy dog sitting on a porch stoop watching its master hop on a school bus. But he'd already made this trip back to the States solely to recruit this kid, had to stop focusing on his own agenda and find Steve. He crossed back to Peter, said lowly because the door was cracked open now. "I gotta get back there, kiddo, do Iron Man stuff but my guy will take good care of you." But the fear wasn't diminished much in the kid's big eyes that latched onto him.

"You'll do great tomorrow, or I wouldn't have come for you," Tony declared, then in a move that surprised even himself, he reached out and gently cupped the kid's face in his hand in what some might have termed a fatherly caress. 'Liked you know anything about fatherly caresses. Your dad didn't touch you except to shove you in front of an audience to be his prodigy on a pedestal,' Tony chided himself, dropping his hand as embarrassment surged in him. Before the kid could recoil at his touch, Tony bolted for the door, wondering why this particular kid had him fantasying about being, not just a mentor, but a father.

Peter was embarrassed by the moment too because he had leaned into Mr. Stark's hand. He had just craved a fatherly touch for so long that he'd reacted instinctively. Felt bereaved when Mr. Stark quickly jerked his hand away and left him behind. He would have to guard against making Mr. Stark into a father figure. The man was just interested in his Spiderman skills, wanted to butter him up to be on his team tomorrow. It wasn't anything more than that and he shouldn't read anything more into it than that. He was a tool for Iron Man. And that was amazing enough, right?

IRMSDMIRM

TBC

IRMSDMIRM

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read this story.

Have a great day!

Cheryl W.