A/N: I realized it might not have been very clear in the last chapter, but Peter's strength was shown through two ways. Obviously there was the physical, e.g. him throwing all the buses and holding up the building. The second was ... emotional? I guess? I don't have a word for it, but it was when Peter saved Flash and Chad(holding the building away from him technically counts as saving). How many of us would save our bullies if given the choice? I view that as a kind of strength and I can definitely see Peter having it.
Midtown High School was closed down for an unknown amount of time for repairs, making Peter feel slightly bad. That meant that him and the other students would get bucket loads of homework to make up for all the missed days... As if he didn't have enough problems already.
Like figuring out who knew his secret.
"Could it be Mr. Toomes?" Peter asked, looking down at a list in his hands of all the people that could know his secret.
Tony raised an eyebrow, everyone looking over at the boy. "Who?"
"That scary vulture dude that tried hijacking your invisible jet. He's the only one I know that saw my face and knew who I was."
"Peter, did you really show yourself off to the enemy?" Nat asked with a frown, "That's Tony's thing to challenge a bad guy by releasing personal info about himself, I know he's your mentor but-"
"No, no," Peter shook his head as his hands fiddled with the paper, "I didn't tell him... He kinda found out..."
"Peter..."
The boy sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to get out of this now. He really didn't want to give them all the embarrassing story behind his first date... "His daughter was my homecoming date... She was telling him about Spider-Man saving her at the capital and mention that I wasn't there... I guess with the way I was acting around him and the fact that Liz kept saying I disappeared for the decathlon meet and didn't show up until after Spider-Man save them at the Washington Monument, he put the pieces together."
The room was quiet for a while, Sam leaning over to pat Peter on the shoulder. "That's rough, man..."
The group went back to silently looking for possible baddies, everyone trying to ignore the now awkwardness that filled the room.
Hours later, Peter finally gave in to the call for sleep. He stood up, bid the Avengers farewell, and headed to his room. Tony had offered both Parkers a place to stay while they searched for this new foe, but May had turned him down. She couldn't afford to take off of work for however long that would be, nor did she enjoy the idea of a two hour drive to work one way. But she did order Peter to stay there, to stay as safe as possible. Now the boy was under the rules that he had to have someone with him whenever he left the compound, whether it was patrolling or getting a pizza.
It wasn't so bad there, he loved hanging out with his heroes... But he felt like he was constricted. Everyone was searching for whoever this person was, everyone was always asking if he was alright, everyone was always making random checks on him in the middle of the night... He felt like a child that had just been brought home from a traumatic experience. It was suffocating.
These thoughts circled around his head, keeping him from sleep. His fingers tapped softly against the bed, the need to be free filling every fiber of his being. He needed to swing freely through the city, he needed to shoot webs at the last minute and barely miss slamming into the ground, he needed to be free from watchful eyes.
"Hey, Friday?" He quietly started, staring up at the ceiling.
"Yes, Peter?"
"You're under orders to tell Mr. Stark everything that I do while I'm here, right?"
