[A/N: I would like to give a big thanks to caffeinatedchaosity  for being the beta of this story!]

Peter landed onto the railing of one of the penthouse's balconies with a light foot before hopping onto the balcony itself. FRIDAY was on constant watch to make sure that no cameras were pointed his way, though, with the cover of darkness, Peter was confident that no one could see him anyways.

He slid the balcony door open, tired from extensive use of his new training cores. There were a few bugs, but he was working them out; Karen was even simulating new movements and techniques only possible for a human spider to successfully execute but it would make his fighting style all the more proficient once he masters it.

He had his abilities so there was no reason to not take full advantage of them while crime-fighting.

Peter pushed his hood back and pulled off his mask as he walked over to the dimly illuminated kitchen. With the penthouse in night mode, there were a few dim lights strategically placed throughout allowing for late-night wanderers to find their way around without the bright overheads.

Peter didn't bother asking FRIDAY to turn the lights on; in fact, she knew him well enough to dim them a little further since he preferred the darkness. There were better places to hide, it was easier to sneak, and if he needed to escape then he was harder to follow. Not that he needed to worry about any of that since he knew that there was no safer place than the Stark family penthouse, but it was still nice to have that comfort after coming down from the adrenaline high that he got from his patrols.

Opening the fridge, Peter grabbed a Gatorade only to immediately down its contents in big gulps as he reached for the upper cabinet that held his high-calorie breakfast bars.

The fridge closed automatically and once he had a breakfast bar he leaned back against the door's cool metal surface. He took a bite of the bar as he closed his eyes, his head leaning back against the door. He was exhausted and sweaty from the training, his hair partly matted to the side of his face he turned his head so his cheek could feel the coolness of the metal surface. He'd have to remember to wipe down the fridge later so he didn't leave any marks or smudges. But for now, he just took the moment for himself.

Because he could.

He was allowed to rest.

He didn't have to fight anymore.

For the moment, he let himself just breathe. Each calming breath was a sign of the freedom that he would have never hoped to ask for. This freedom that he had been aching for for so long was something that Tony and Pepper gave to him generously .

He was fully aware that no average parent would allow their teenage kid to be out until 2 in the morning, let alone on a school night.

Peter smiled.

Because that's what they were to him now, his parents. Tony Stark was his dad and Pepper Stark was his mom, and wasn't that just fantastic? To go from fearing his life to having a family? To be home? Because he was home, in every truest sense of the word, he was Home . He couldn't have even comprehended a notion like that two months prior.

Peter took in a final breath before pushing off the refrigerator. He finished the Gatorade and took the last few bites of the breakfast bar before looking back at the fringe where the sweaty imprint of his head was.

"Gross," he laughed to himself. "Definitely taking a shower before bed."

He grabbed a rag from the oven handle and the spray cleaner from under the sink before giving the metal finish a quick clean before going over the rest of the countertops and oven. Not that he really needed to - the house had a regular cleaning crew - but the ultimately useless task at least let him feel like he was helping. It never felt like he was contributing enough to the household, and that feeling pulled at his nerves. He quickly stomped it down. He had no reason to feel like that. He was fine, everything was just fine , and he didn't need to clean the house.

That was probably the umpteenth time he's told himself that. Maybe he should mention it to Dr. HAL...

Peter shook his head. No, he was fine; he didn't need to mention that. It was stupid anyway.

He finished up, putting everything back in its place before turning to leave the kitchen. He felt tense but chalked it up to tired muscles.

Peter stopped when he heard the elevator ding. He went rigid, hiding in the shadow of a corner as he listened for the doors to open. He watched towards the hallway and immediately relaxed when he spotted Tony heading towards him. He moved out of his hiding spot and FRIDAY rose the light levels slightly.

"How was patrol?" Tony asked, completely unsurprised to find Peter in the dark. He held an empty coffee mug in his hand and was probably on his way to refill it.

"Good, not much going on this evening... Remember that AR set I was working on? I decided to put training simulations in it. I call it ART: Augmented Reality Training," Peter grinned.

"I'm guessing that's why you smell like a gym," Tony remarked playfully.

"Do not," Peter crossed his arms as he followed Tony back into the kitchen.

Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, maybe a little. But I was going to take a shower. I'm not that gross."

Tony just laughed as he started the coffee maker, "But seriously, ART is a pretty good idea. Need any help designing training sessions or simulations?"

"No, I think I got this one. I do need help on the web bandage though. I don't think I'm getting the balance right. It keeps turning into a sort of green useless goo."

"Bet you can easily rope Bruce into helping you," Tony smirked. "He hasn't seen the new lab yet. I promise it's love at first sight. He'll definitely enjoy geeking out with you and it'll be a good excuse to get him over here. It's been a while since he's been around," Tony said absentmindedly as he began brewing a cup of coffee.

Peter frowned. He was pretty sure that the 'Bruce' he was talking about was Dr. Banner, and he has been missing since the Battle of Sokovia, at the very least.

"What do you say, kid?" Tony glanced at Peter but immediately furrowed his brow at the teen's expression, "Something wrong?"

Peter swallowed before speaking, his frown replaced by worry, "Um... Dr. Banner has been missing since Sokovia... hasn't he?"

"Oh," Tony said looking blankly back at the coffee machine. "Yeah, I guess you're right," his voice was quiet. "FRIDAY, make a note of memory lapses in withdrawal side effects," Tony whispered, probably hoping that Peter wouldn't hear him. The room fell into a cold silence before Tony spoke again, his light tone returned as if he didn't just forget about a missing friend. "Hey! Actually, I needed to talk with you about something."

Peter quickly took the change of subject. "What about?" he asked curiously as he put his rested his elbows back against one of the marble counters.

"Look, I know what you're going to think about this, but hear me out first," Tony looked back at Peter, who could already tell this was going to be one of those parenting talks by his tone of voice.

Peter bit the inside of his cheek trying not to show his worry as his mind raced to figure out what he might have done wrong to initiate this talk. He nodded.

"Now, you know Pepper and I are completely supportive of your friendly neighborhood spider-gig, but we both think it would be best that you start cutting back, it-"

"What! Why?" Peter asked quickly- any other request he would have complied with whether he liked it or not, but he would always draw the line at Spider-Man. He wouldn't let anyone take that away from him.

"Just reduce your patrol times, that's all we're asking. You're still a kid, Peter, and we want you to at least enjoy this time in your life. Do whatever it is normal teenagers do, you know? We don't want you to miss that," Tony said gently.

"But I'm not a normal teenager. I can't just not be Spider-Man," Peter said quickly; he could feel his chest tighten at the fear of losing that.

"That's not what we're asking... We just want you to put yourself out there a little more. Get a hobby, rejoin decathlon, get involved with a club- Hey! You can even go back to the internship. We can reduce the hours to make it every other day if that'll help," Tony said in a calming yet enthused voice, but his worry for Peter showed.

Peter couldn't help but turn his gaze away from Tony. He didn't respond as he bit his lip nervously.

Tony thought for a moment before saying, "Here, let's make a deal. You pick two other things you want to occupy your free time with that doesn't involve anything spider-related and we'll call it good. How's that sound?"

Peter forced himself to shrug. He couldn't even bring himself to glance at Tony and his body was rigid with tension.

"Peter, we are not, I repeat, we are not taking Spider-Man away from you. We just -" he paused as if trying to find the words. "You don't have to sacrifice being Peter to take on the responsibilities of Spider-Man. You can have both now," Tony was standing next to him and had placed a hand on his shoulder.

Peter took in a breath, maybe Tony was right. He only had Peter's best interests in mind. It had been a while since he's ever done anything for himself... but where was he even supposed to start?

He relaxed slightly as he leaned towards Tony, "The... um, internship? I wouldn't mind that, I guess... for starters," he said quietly looking up at the man.

Tony gave a grateful smile, "We can definitely work something out for that." He removed his hand from Peter's shoulder only to ruffle up the teen's hair. "Now change out of that suit and take a shower. You're making the kitchen smell like a boy's locker room," he joked.

Peter grinned shaking his head in amusement, "You sure that's me? It smells like an auto shop in my opinion."

"I'll have you know that I wear only the finest cologne," the billionaire boasted.

"Ah yes, Acqua di parma la motor oil," Peter smirked.

"How dare you mock a great cologne company and butcher the Italian language in the same breath!"

"Goodnight, Tony," Peter laughed.

"Yeah, yeah... Night, kid," the man responded, who was obviously failing to hide a smile in the process.

***

"Wait, did he drop her out the window? Or did she fall?"

"Are we just gonna ignore the fact that he was working for the mob?"

"I thought he was strange before, but now he's kinda creepy."

"Guys! Shut up! He went toe-to-toe with the cops and fought a fucking bear! Do you really want him overhearing you?!"

Students whispered. They always would, but the biggest gossip of Midtown High was the return of the newly-named Peter Stark, and it was still a buzzing topic. He probably wouldn't have heard them if he had normal hearing, but it was hard to ignore the whispers obviously about you even without enhanced senses. Some of the rumors were laughable, but some speculations were a little too close to the truth.

"I don't care what the media says about it being an accident; if I had an aunt like that... I'd drop her out a window, too."

He knew he shouldn't, but it was easy to fall back into old habits and go numb to the world. It made dealing with the whispers easier and it wasn't like he couldn't fake the appropriate emotions for conversation since he'd been doing it his whole life after all. Though, controlling his voice's tone was something of a struggle. It was easy to sound judgmental or condescending when you forget to put the proper energy into the tone. Luckily, Ned and MJ never minded. Ned hardly noticed and he focused more on what was said instead of how it was said when they got deep into nerdy conversations. MJ, on the other hand, would point it out and help him correct it.

But his friends couldn't constantly follow him around to correct his mistakes, so it was a good thing he didn't need them to. Not everyone has the privilege of hearing him speak. Without his suit he didn't talk to people he didn't trust, and no matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise, he felt surrounded by enemies.

Pretending like everything was normal was the easy part. Even if his body was on high alert and he was constantly checking out his peripheral vision in subtle increments, he kept a calm and confident stride down the school halls. Even though that was nearly the opposite of the Peter Parker they knew before.

Pretending like everything was normal was far better than pretending like the shy, pathetic self he was before. That act was to deter anyone who looked too close, even if his hidden anger and fear sometimes broke through.

But pretending like everything was normal sometimes gave the wrong impression. He didn't pretend with his friends, or at least, he tried not to (some habits are hard to break) but walking around seemingly unfazed by the horrific events that he went through left some with the wrong idea.

It was during study hall that Peter found himself walking down the hallways towards the library where he would usually meet Ned and MJ. He'd planned to talk with Ned about the bank robbery footage, and Ned mentioned that he found something but he wanted to show him in person. He stayed a little later after class in Calculus - someone was struggling and Peter was glad to offer them some help - so the path he took that was usually bustling with students was now empty.

Which was the perfect opportunity for someone to ambush him.

It was as he approached the small corridor that led down to the basement that he got the warning.

Hostile Intent.

Peter didn't allow his step to falter, and from the low severity of the spidey sense as it traveled down his spine, he could easily assume that it was an ambush by some of the other students. Definitely more than one though.

He passed by the dark corridor where the students waited.

Hostile Contact.

Two sets of hands reached out to grab him, but one of the advantages of everyone knowing that Peter Stark was Nor is the fact he didn't have to take shit like this anymore. He was a courier for the Brooklyn Deadeyes! Like he hadn't been ambushed before.

He didn't use his spider abilities, but he still managed to grab each of the attackers' hands and twisting them at an angle that would be painful, then kicking their legs causing them to both take a knee.

"The fuck do you want?" Peter said in a low and dangerous tone as he stood above them. The light casting an ominous shadow over his figure.

There was one exception to his 'no talking to enemies' rule and that was to threaten them.

"Shit!" One of them hissed in pain.

Now looking at the two, Peter realized who they were. He rolled his eyes and threw their hands back forcefully. The momentum caused them both to fall onto their backs.

Every school had them. It didn't matter how pretentious the school might be; there would always be users lurking around.

Peter scoffed as he took a step back, he loosened his stance, but didn't let his guard down. His hands lowered to his sides and remained closed in tight fists as he glared at the two in disgust. > If you think you can get a fix from me, I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm retired. < He didn't even know the two boys' names or if they had that kind of reputation, but he's been in enough drug dens to recognize the hungry look in their eyes.

"Come on, man," one of them said, scrambling to their feet. They failed in an attempt to regain some kind of dignity. "Mrs. Edenburrow's forcing this huge writing assignment for seniors. We need something to chill out."

> Like I said, I'm done with that stuff. If you try asking again, the office might get an anonymous hint to search your lockers and I'll make sure they find something. < Peter threatened. He turned on his heel to continue his path down the hall. He heard the two teens groan to each other about what to do next; one made the comment grumbling that he was sure Peter was lying.

Hopefully, that would be the last he would see of anyone like that. He really wasn't interested in dealing with those types of people- especially as Peter Stark. No matter how grateful he is for his adoption, he needed to acknowledge the fact that his last name now carried a heavy weight.

The rest of his journey down the hall was uneventful. By the time he pushed his way through the library doors he nearly forgot about the interaction with the two students.

When he found MJ and Ned sitting at one of the tables, they were deep in a debate about... something. Peter didn't quite catch what they were talking about, but Ned immediately changed the subject when he spotted Peter.

"Peter! Finally! You need to see this," Ned said excitedly as he pulled out his laptop.

Peter sat in the empty chair next to Ned as he set his bag on the ground beside them. "The bank footage?" Peter asked eagerly.

Flipping the laptop open, Ned pulled up some kind of video-editing program that Peter wasn't familiar with. "So, I went through this thing about a hundred times last night. Running it through different filters in the suit trying to get something but then it hit me."

Peter frowned as he suddenly recognized the Adobe software that Ned opened. "Are you using..."

"Yup," Ned grinned. "That Adobe program that analyzes pictures to tell you if it's been edited. Of course, I know that your video is totally not edited, but I thought if the guy in the vault was using some kind of cloaking-thing then just maybe it might be picked up here."

"Did it?" MJ asked. She was now on their side of the table leaning over Ned's shoulder to watch the screen.

"Here, just watch," Ned smirked as he tapped the spacebar to play the video.

Peter remained silent as he watched the video closely. The program made the image a grainy black and white canvas of pixels that outlined the objects in view. As Spider-Man looked around the corner of the stairs, a thin and almost indistinguishable outline of fuzzy red pixels dotted the screen, but they were so spread out and seemingly sporadically scattered that it was difficult to tell what shape stood in the vault.

"What... is that?" MJ asked.

"I have no idea," Ned shook his head.

"Is there a better view of it?" Peter asked quietly.

"Yeah, there's this one frame..." Ned trailed off as he clicked forward.

The video paused on a frame taken just as Peter entered the vault, just before the invisible assailant first attacked Spider-Man. Peter felt chills shiver down his back as he looked at the image. Although it was distorted, Peter could recognize those four jagged, faint legs and the glowing red eyes.

[Picture]

If he wasn't sitting down, he would have stumbled in shock. "That's impossible," Peter whispered.

The others looked over at him.

"You know what that is?" MJ asked.

"The way it moved, its ability, and now this? It has to be the Widower suit... but that was destroyed," Peter hissed quietly.

"Could Stark have another one?" Ned asked.

"No, just the one. Even then it would have been under heavy security that only Pepper could get through. If he tried getting it without her we'd be notified," Peter stared at the two glowing eyes.

"How exactly was the other one destroyed?" MJ asked, looking back at the image.

"When... um... When May kidnapped Tony, she got a jump on him. Tased the back of his neck with something high amped. I doubt she realized what she was doing, but it fried the suit. The nanoparticles practically collapsed into sand onto the ground. Even if someone knew what the particles were, they would have been completely useless. The entire system was fried. There was nothing left but the hardware," Peter exclaimed. He was quickly shushed by an annoyed-looking librarian. He winced and gave a quick apology before continuing. "Besides, nobody knew Tony was the Widower except for Pepper and me... Maybe the ex-Avengers caught on, but that's a huge 'if'. Even so, none of them would have helped May."

"We've gotta be missing something then. No one just stumbles on Stark tech like that," MJ moved back over to her chair on the other side of the table.

"So... are you going to tell Mr. Stark about this?" Ned asked.

"No. Absolutely not," Peter shot back quickly. That was a no-brainer. Tony was still recovering from the effects of the suit, and if he found out about the suit's reappearance now, he might say he was going after it purely to keep it out of the hands of the bad guy, but Peter knew that he'd be thinking about wearing the suit the whole time. Not to mention the amount of guilt that Tony would feel for not keeping it out of the villains' hands.

Was it even a true villain? There was too little information right now to tell, but Peter was not about to give a bank robber the benefit of the doubt.

"For now, we keep this between us," Peter continued.

"Is that a good idea?" Ned asked hesitantly.

"I'm with Ned, you really should tell him," MJ joined in.

Peter shook his head, "You guys didn't see what this suit did to him. It physically altered the chemistry in his brain. He's an addict. I don't want to ruin his progress. I can handle this myself."

Ned and MJ obviously didn't want to, but they reluctantly agreed. They went back to normal school work after that, and it was just as they were packing up to leave that MJ pulled him aside.

"You better keep me updated on this. I don't want this to get out of hand," she said sternly, but Peter could see the worry in her eyes.

"Okay, but I know I can handle this, don't worry," Peter reassured.

"I'm holding you to that," MJ warned.

The three of them walked out of the library and held a small conversation in the hall as they walked to class. MJ turned down one hall early leaving Ned and Peter, but unfortunately, they weren't going to the same class.

"Hey, good luck in anatomy, I've heard the teacher is giving you a partner that you'll be stuck with for the rest of the year. Some kind of new teaching technique that the science department wants to try," Ned said as they stood outside Peter's classroom door.

"I hate it when they do that," Peter sighed, "Do they at least let us pick partners?"

"Ha! Nope. Good luck, bro," Ned joked as he turned to hurry down the hall towards his own class.

"Thanks, man," Peter rolled his eyes with a slight smile as he turned to walk into the classroom.

Anatomy wasn't so bad. They'd been going over the basics, which essentially meant bone structure, and they had just finished the final test the week before where they had to label all the parts of the skeleton. Literally. They labeled every single bone in the human body.

Okay, maybe it was kind of a tough class, but Peter had never been more thankful for Karen. She creates excellent quizlets and study guides; Peter wondered if Tony added that feature on purpose. Either way, they were not only useful for Peter but he had her post them on the student message board simply under the name 'Karen'. It wasn't like anyone actually knew that Peter had his own AI, let alone what its name was, so it might as well have been an anonymous post.

Peter found his seat towards the back, where the teacher had them sit alphabetically. He never expected to feel a little disoriented about his name change before; he was fairly familiar with most of the students in school since he knew them from other grades, but now having his usual placement in an alphabetical setting offset by just three letters was like having a mysterious force move everything in your house an inch to the left.

Leaning back in his chair with his bag under the blacktop desk and a pencil and notebook in front of him, Peter watched as the stragglers hustled into the classroom. The science tables sat two students each, and it wasn't long before Peter's neighbor, Lissa Taris, showed up. Despite sitting next to each other, she pretended that he didn't even exist. She was the classic perfect blond-haired pretty girl that was on the cheerleading squad. He never really understood why so many guys swooned over her. Yeah, sure, she was objectively "pretty", but under all of that makeup and hair dye, she was a total bitch.

Though she was amusing at times, she ignored Peter after they first started sitting together, so he just ignored her right back. She probably expected him to fawn over her, or try to win her over, but when that didn't happen, it seemed to ruffle her feathers. In her efforts to pretend he didn't exist, she probably paid more attention to him than when she just vaguely ignored him.

Peter muffled a laugh as he watched Lissa flip her hair at him in attempts to hit him in the face. She shot a glare at him but Peter looked down at his phone smiling like he read something funny. Out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted a blush of anger as she huffed in annoyance before facing forwards.

Eventually, the teacher, Mrs. Jacobs, stepped in. She stood at the front of the class and waited a few moments as the students settled before speaking.

"Now that we've gone through the basic structure of the human body, we will be covering more complicated topics. For the rest of the course, you will have a partner, and before you ask, no, you cannot pick. I will also be changing the seating arrangement so you'll be sitting with your new partner." She cleared her throat then looked down at a piece of paper, "Abraham Brown and Jessica Long..." she started. Everyone began shuffling around, and Mrs. Jacobs pointed to the seat each set of students would be sitting at.

"Flash Thompson, Peter Parker," she said, pointing to the desk at the furthest right edge of the classroom in the middle of the row.

"Fuck," Peter heard Flash whisper to himself.

Wasn't that supposed to be my line? Peter thought to himself. It probably would have been if it were a year ago.

Peter had made it clear to Flash that he wasn't an outlet for his own issues, since why else would someone bully a peer so consistently? Either way, Flash had left Peter alone and they both minded their own businesses. He hadn't even talked to Flash since the other teen apologized about his behavior.

It never occurred to Peter that Flash might have been avoiding him. At least, that's what his comment suggested.

Peter took his seat and Flash was quick to follow, but he could sense an awkward stiffness from the other boy as they both settled their supplies on the desk.

As the teacher continued calling names, Peter got comfortable in his chair as he leaned back. He couldn't help but stare at Flash who kept his eyes locked on his composition book, his shoulders stiff.

>I'm not going to bite, you know,< Peter joked. He wished his translator could portray emotions like the suit one used to, but Tony has yet to figure out how to get an accurate reading on the face without a full mask.

Flash finally glanced over at Peter, his eyes glossing over the prominent scar on his face before looking him in the eyes.

>If you're still worried about me holding a grudge against you, don't be. Like I said, we're cool.<

Flash relaxed slightly, "Well you haven't said anything to me since I apologized, so I wasn't sure."

>We aren't exactly friends, Flash,< Peter signed truthfully. >The only reason that we talked before was because you picked on me at decathlon. Now since neither of those things are applicable, there's never been much of a reason to talk.<

"Right... guess we have to talk now. Sorta stuck as partners," Flash looked back at his notebook as he lightly tapped his pencil against it.

Peter thought for a moment; Flash didn't seem to be that bad of a guy and he definitely turned a new leaf over. He seemed to be feeling remorseful for how he used to act... Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to give the guy a second chance.

>Tell you what,< Peter started, >How about we just start over?<

Flash looked at him questioningly, "What do you mean?"

Peter playfully smirked before putting on a friendly smile, >Hello, my name's Peter Stark. Nice to meet you,< he grinned as he held out a hand.

Flash looked at him like he was crazy, and it seemed to take him a few seconds to process what Peter was proposing. He looked down at Peter's hand hesitantly before reaching out, "Flash Thompson... Nice to meet you too?"

Peter shook his hand firmly before leaning back in his seat again. He wore a smug grin while Flash just shook his head in confusion, "I'm gonna be honest, Stark, you're kinda weird," Flash laughed nervously.

>I'm going to assume that's a compliment?< Peter chuckled. >But if we're going to be working together, you might as well call me Peter, Eugene,< he teased.

"So long as you never call me by my first name again, I'll call you whatever the hell you want," Flash snickered; the tension from before had faded away.

>Sounds like a deal.<

Mrs. Jacobs called their attention after she finished listing off the pairings and started the day's lesson. It looked like their next section was going to be about muscle structure.

As school went on and the day came to an end, Peter stood outside waiting for his friends so he could talk with them before they left.

He couldn't help but notice a slight buzz in the air from the other students, with the name Spider-Man bouncing through the crowd. While it was a common subject for students to discuss, it usually wasn't a hot topic for conversation unless something major happened. Peter frowned and felt his phone vibrate. He quickly pulled it out and noticed a notification from Karen. It was of a news report, whose headline read: Spider-Man gone rogue? Webslinger attacks police after robbing a bank!