Peter Parker... Stark?

Your Problem Now

The next day went by rather slowly for the Rogues. Tony and Pepper had mostly kept to their apartment upstairs, leaving Steve and Natasha to awkwardly try to fill their time.

"Steve? What are you doing?" Natasha asked as she rounded a corner to find Steve standing conspicuously outside of the conference room. He quickly lifted a finger in front of his lips and beckoned her closer.

Confused, Natasha approached Steve with another question ready to burst from her mouth. However, once she got close enough, she could make out some very familiar voices arguing in the conference room.

"What I understand," Fury was saying, "is that somehow a teenage boy has managed to outsmart and outrun both you and Colonel Rhodes every night for the past week."

"And what I'm telling you," Tony snapped back, "is that he's just a kid. Not a supervillain. Not a threat. Also not old enough to be dealing with the SHIELD garbage you keep spitting at me." He had the same tone of voice as when he'd confronted the two Rogues the night before about harassing Peter.

Fury sighed. "Look, if it were up to me, I would let the kid be. But this is coming from higher up. If you can't find out Spider-Man's identity, you won't just have me harping on you about anymore. Soon enough, Ross will be calling you up about it during every waking hour." Fury paused to let his words sink in. "Trust me, that's the last thing you need right now."

Natasha pushed past Steve---who tried and failed to bar her way---and opened the conference room door. She leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms as all eyes turned to her.

"Agent Romanoff, glad you could join us," Fury said with a smirk.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"No, no problem," Tony interrupted bitterly, "other than the fact that you've just interrupted a private meeting about a classified topic."

"Oh please," Steve said, stepping into view, "swallow your pride for once, Stark."

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Rogers on this one," Fury said, cutting Tony's next sarcastic comment short. "Admit it. You need help. Help has arrived. You can pout about it all you want, but it won't change that that vigilante isn't going to catch himself."

Natasha watched as Tony's shoulders tensed with anger. Pepper, who was sitting beside him, also noticed, and was quick to gently rub them.

"Just give me one more chance," he said.

"No."

"What? Why?"

"You've had plenty of chances. This will be good for you," Fury said, gesturing at the two Rogues. "Write about the disappointment later in your diary if you want. I don't care. Just catch Spider-Man." And with that, Fury's hologram blinked away.

Tony didn't say anything as he stormed past the Rogues and into the elevator.

"Tony," Steve started, but the billionaire merely told Friday to shut the elevator doors, and then he was gone.

"You two are doing a great job at repairing your relationships," Pepper said sarcastically from behind them.

Natasha snorted. "Yeah, well, he's certainly not helping the process."

~~~

"Tones, are you okay?"

"Yep. Feeling just chipper, actually."

"Your sarcasm is tangible."

"Thanks, Rhodes, for noticing,"

Rhodey sighed as he watched Tony make himself another cup of coffee. "You know, when I said I wanted Sober Tony, I didn't mean I wanted you to start drinking five gallons of coffee every morning." Tony met Rhodey's eyes before lifting the mug to his mouth and taking a long, loud slurp from its contents. Rhodey couldn't hold back a snicker at Tony's childish attitude, which in turn drew a small smile onto Tony's face.

They sat in silence for a while before the sound of the elevator doors opening echoed from the hallway. Steve and Natasha walked into the kitchen, and the quiet atmosphere suddenly became incredibly awkward.

"So. You've got a vigilante causing problems?" Steve finally said.

"Yeah, some kid who calls himself Spider-Man," Rhodey said as Tony stayed pointedly silent, "Fury wants to know who he is, whether he's a threat, that sort of thing."

"And... he's just a kid?" Natasha asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Looks and sounds to me like he's a teenager, but he's smarter than you'd think."

"Well, what do you think we should do then? Clearly you know more about this vigilante than we do," Steve said, leaning on the island.

Finally, Tony spoke up. "Nope. You're the ones who wanted in on the action, so you're the ones who are going to make the plan and follow through. Besides, my intern is coming tonight, so I can't be out vigilante hunting anyways."

Steve frowned. "Fury said to work together."

"Yeah, well, you can write about the disappointment in your diary later," Tony said smugly. Natasha snickered and Rhodey rolled his eyes. Tony put his empty mug down on the island and met Steve's eyes.

"Sorry Cap. Spider-Man's your problem now." Then he left the room.

~~~

Peter's day went by in a haze. He remembered sloppily dragging himself through his weekend chores and then briefly attempting to do his homework, but in the end he'd eventually let his hunger-induced exhaustion drag him into a long nap. When he woke up, the clock indicated that he was already ten minutes late to his internship.

Peter gasped and fell out of his bed, landing hard on the ground with a yelp of pain. He quickly combed his fingers through his hair and grabbed his backpack before running out of the orphanage and down the street.

He'd eaten all the Pop Tarts last night, and they'd helped at first, but already his body was begging him for more than just sugar and preservatives.

Once again, he hadn't preformed to Ms. Walters' standards.

Once again, he'd been denied lunch and dinner.

And once again, he was in the elevator, wishing that May was still alive.

He vaguely heard Friday say something, but the world was starting to warp and spin around him. When the elevator doors opened, he dragged himself down the hall towards the lab, but had to stop to lean against the wall.

He was exhausted. His stomach no longer rumbled. It cramped and twisted and screamed for something, anything, and Peter couldn't do anything about it.

The door to the lab suddenly swung open, and Tony rushed into the hallway.

"Kid, what's wrong?" Tony asked, but his voice was garbled.

"Jussalittle tired issall, Mr. Tony," Peter slurred, before his knees buckled beneath him and the world went black.