8 Replaced... pt.2

"Peter, Boss is requesting your presence in the living room please, he would like to speak to you about something." Peter's eyes fluttered open from a post-patrol nap on Saturday morning. He was adjusting to living with Tasha, who was being quite generous to him, giving him a space to live and plenty of love, as Peter has a need for physical affection with all the tragic things in his life. He was practically her son by now. Peter hauled himself out of the bed and after stretching, stumbled into the hallway, getting a greyout, where his eyesight goes black after he wakes up and tries to walk around. He staggered into the elevator and told FRIDAY to bring him down to the living quarters. Natasha had requested a floor just for herself, for her space and mental health. She asked for a special modification where she had to approve people to let them on her floor, unless they had a special pass, like Peter and Clint. The elevator halted to a stop and Peter stood up slowly from where he'd been sitting on the ground and walked out into the foyer, where Tony was waiting for him, he glanced over at Tasha and Clint, who both sported nervous looks on their faces.

"Pete, come over here." Tony beckoned him and he reluctantly shuffled over to the man. "Is it true you've been bullying my son?" Tony's face displayed a furious look as he question the boy.

"But, I thought I was your 'son'?" Peter was confused, he didn't know who Tony was referring to and even if he did, it wasn't a likely story. Peter's experienced that thing first hand and wouldn't want someone else to feel the pain he did.

"I mean, sort of. But I'm talking about the other one. Aiden says you've been harassing him. Tell me the truth kid, did you do it?" Tony placed a firm hand on Peter's shoulder, 'Wow, Peter thought, I've been demoted.'

"No, I would never ever try to hurt someone. I've already felt what it's like before, why would I do it to someone else?" Peter practically pleaded with the man when he saw Tony's face grow cold.

"Kid, I have proof, I can't believe you'd lie to me! What was I thinking."

"You.. h-have p-proof?"

"See, of course you're lying, the stutter is coming back!" Tony pointed in his face. Natasha came from the crowd and pulled Peter back, holding him protectively. Peter was still confused, what proof? And just because he was stuttering, doesn't mean he was lying. Didn't Tony know enough about mental health, to know that he was just nervous because he was accusing him of something he hadn't done. Some people romanticize mental health, and believe some things mean this and Peter knew Tony was not that person. He turned around and buried his face into Natasha's shoulder, even though they were the same height, 5'7". Natasha started dragging him away, and Peter tuned out the other things Tony said. He heard other footsteps and knew it was Clint following them, by the weight and the breathing patterns. Natasha whispered to FRIDAY to take them to her floor to calm down, the A.I silently complied and the elevator lurched upwards until they were on the redhead's floor.

"маленький паук, you ok? I know Tony's a little bitch sometimes..."

"Tasha! You can't say that." Peter giggled anyways. "Yeah, I'm fine, just frustrated. You have to believe me when I say I didn't do that. I would never, after Flash, and Skip" He said the last part a bit quieter, hoping Tasha would understand he didn't want to bring back bad memories.

"It's ok, squirt, we gotcha." Clint said, leaning into the hug.

Peter mumbled a thanks as he leaned into his friends/guardians. He loved them greatly. He'd go to the shooting range with Clint, who'd teach him to shoot a bow. He'd dance with Natasha, just to give her company in her floors studio. He kept up with her pretty well. He taught them how to fix up an old car and what the different chemicals on the periodic table were. He learned from them and they learned from him, all while avoiding Tony and his new kid.

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Tony ignored Peter more and more, he was uninvited to family dinners and Tony's excuse was always 'I just forgot.' The passcode to the lab was changed after Peter had taken his things out, an obvious to keep the spider-kid outside. Tony stopped checking in with Peter after and before patrol and when he was notified by Friday that Peter was deathly hurt and in the med bay, instead of rushing down there like he normally did, he sat there and told Friday to turn up his music, which had surprisingly been switched from hard rock and heavy metal to folk rock, AC DC and Metallica, switched to Simon and Garfunkle, and the Beatles. Aiden had been spending more and more time with Tony and Peter was falling into a worse and worse depression. He helped it by turning on some classical and performing some pieces together or alone for Clint. Natasha also decided to teach him to throw knives at a target with Tony's face on it. They sparred regularly after his school day, where Happy would pick up Aiden and say sorry to Peter because he loved his job too much.

"Peter! Want to go spar downstairs? We can work in the studio tomorrow."

"Uhh, yeah ok, hold on, let me change." Peter stood up from his bed and change his jeans for leggings and his sweater for a tank top. He grabbed the bo staff Tasha had been recently teaching him with and headed into the elevator, where Tasha was waiting in her tank top and leggings as well. They usually sparred barefoot, which made it easier to move quickly. Peter was practically barefoot in the suit anyways, so it was the same almost. The elevator ride was in a comfortable silence, one they had perfected over the years. The silence ended when they came face to face with Tony when it stopped. Peter held his hand by his side, clutching the bo staff and forcing it to stay still.

"Peter, Natasha. I hear you're going to spar."

"Umm, yeah. Get out of our way asshole." Natasha tried to move past him, but Tony just slid across the floor, blocking her points of exit. This happened a few more times, when she had gotten sick of it. She quickly threw herself into the air, performing a grand jeté and flying over Tony. Who just stared amazed at her and quickly moved back to the second target, again moving in front of him so he would have no points of exit. Peter extended the staff, trying to hit Tony. He wasn't prepared to do a grand jeté in front of his once mentor under quite a bit of pressure. He just started hyperventilating, he was on the verge of a panic attack from being trapped. He sat down on the floor and slowly jutted the staff out, hoping to hit one of Tony's legs, with no avail. Natasha came back up behind Tony with Sam and Rhodey on each of her sides.

"Hey, Tones. Leave the kid alone." Rhodey pulled Tony aside while Sam helped the kid up. Peter was ever so grateful and gave Sam a hug before running towards Tasha. He entered the training gym, to find most everyone in there. Wanda was with Vision, practicing her magic. Bucky and Steve were both slamming their fists into punching bags, both surprisingly had Tony's face on it. (Though Peter did see a broken bag next to Bucky with Donald Trump's face on it.) Thor and Loki were still in Asgard, but Carol had come down from space and was giving a greeting to Natasha when she saw him. She ran towards him and he did the same thing, meeting her in the middle, like those cheesy love stories. Except she was his aunt so they were just excited to see each other.

"Pete! I heard Tony was harassing you out in the hallway, and he has a new intern now?" Carol questioned, when she saw his red face from almost crying.

"Yeah," He mumbled. "But Tasha is helping me with ballet and I have performance in like a week if you'll still be around then."

"Of course I will! I'd love to see it."

"Great, thanks Aunt Carol!"

They got back to sparring, Natasha against Peter the whole time, they boxed, did hand to hand combat, got the bo staff out. Peter was tuckered out, but Friday seemed to have one last request for him.

"Peter. Michelle Jones is here to see you."

"Send her up to Natasha's floor please and thank you."

"Will do."

Peter headed back up to Tasha's floor with Tasha herself and waited around for MJ, wrapping his knuckles and fixing a mistake on his history project about the Great Depression. A knock on the door was heard and MJ came in with two Dr.Peppers and a box of Ritz. He backpack was hanging on one shoulder and her hair was up in a bun. She had her reading glasses on, a rare occasion and she wore pajamas.

"Hey babe." She greeted him with a smile, holding here hands out with offerings.

"Hey baby." Peter kissed her cheek while taking the snacks, pausing the wrapping of his hands for a moment to grab them.

"Peter, I can do that if you want. I may be going into journalism but I took more than 5 first aid classes." Peter held his hands up in defeat and handed them over to MJ. (Handed, get it? Hand ed? I crack myself up.) MJ took the hands and the bandages and delicately unwrapped and rewrapped them. He smiled at her. His girlfriend's dedication to well, everything amazed him constantly. How he got so lucky? He didn't know.

"OK! All wrapped up. Now. Can I go punch Tony?! Pleeeeeeasee." MJ was so excited to kill the man once she heard from Carol he was harassing her boyfriend.

"I don't know the code to the lab. He switched it. I'll go ask someone though. Come with me?" He offered a hand out to her, which she gladly accepted.

"Can I take one of Natasha's knives? Or Wade's katanas?"

"I'll see. I doubt it though." His doubt was proven wrong when she got permission from both to kill Tony Stark. They hopped into the elevator, searching for Rhodey, who most likely knew the answer. He went to the common room, finding most everyone on the way. But no Rhodey.

"Hey! Has anyone seen Rhodey lately? We need to ask him something." Peter called out to the group. A chorus of 'No' and 'Sorry' were heard throughout the living room. They turned to leave, but stopped quickly. "Does anyone here know the code to Tony's lab?" They all looked at MJ, who held two katanas on her back in a halter and three daggers in each hand. They looked confused and scared. But they didn't want to question anything. Another chorus of no's were heard again but a small yes stuck out. Wanda raised her hand from the back of the group and repeated "6778910" MJ thanked her and headed in search of the glass doors.