"Hey, Peter? Can you please keep this weekend free? Natasha and I wanted to go out for a bit all together." Tony was making his son a lunch for school as he talked. Natasha had become a regular face around the penthouse since Tony had told Peter that they were together. Peter hadn't had any problem with it - it wasn't like he had any memory of his birth mother to hold onto. And, for the most part, Natasha was kind-hearted and a comforting presence around the apartment, but she also posed a pretty big threat to Peter's secret. A spy was more likely to notice all the little lies and inconsistent stories than Tony was.

"Okay, Dad, I just-" Peter thought for a moment. "I have some tests on Monday, so Ned and I wanted to study on Sunday. Could we hang out on Saturday?"

"Sure, Saturday works. Let's still do dinner on Sunday though."

Peter nodded and grabbed his lunch box, gritting his jaw. Peter hated that he lied. He hated that when he lied to his dad, Tony just took it as truth. He hated being trusted when he didn't deserve it.

The teen headed off to school, leaving his dad in the kitchen alone. Tony poured himself a mug of coffee, then poured another one for Natasha. She'd slept over the night before, but Peter didn't have to know that.

"Good morning," Natasha whispered, coming around the corner of the hall. "Is he off to school?"

Tony nodded and passed her the mug of fresh coffee with a smile. "How did you sleep?"

"Fine," Natasha said, brushing messy hair behind her ears. "I hope you don't mind - I stole one of your band shirts. I didn't want to make the trip downstairs and wake everyone up."

Tony looked down at Natasha's shirt, surprised to see if was one of his favorites. "Well, I'll let it slide this time but... it is my favorite."

Natasha laughed, breathing in lungfuls of the coffee's steam. She cut herself off and took a sip of the coffee, practically moaning at how good it was.

"The right amount of sugar."

"How you like it," Tony said, taking a sip of his black coffee.

Natasha smiled. "You're a very thoughtful person, Tony, I don't think people expect that."

Tony just shrugged. "Whatever. We have that meeting in a few hours, we should go get ready."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter swung through the city, enjoying the sunny breeze. Ned was watching the police scanner carefully, even from where he was on the walk home. Peter was supposed to be at Academic Decathalon right now, according to his father, but it was his newest cover story for why he was going to be late home from school. He was out patrolling now for nearly 2 hours after school.

"Seeing anything?" Peter asked Ned over the ear piece.

"Not really. It's the middle of the day, there aren't exactly robberies and car thefts going on."

Peter swung between buildings, barely grazing the hard asphalt before pulling himself up and over the next wall. He could just look for people who needed help, he didn't need a scanner to do it for him.

"Do old women crossing the road count as people who need superhero assistance?" Peter asked, looking down from the building he was currently sitting on.

"I mean, if they need help..."

Peter sung down and offered his arm. The old woman gladly took it, albeit a little nervous about the way Peter was dressed. It was something. Another tick in the "wins" box for the day.

"Hey, dude, I have to disconnect for a few minutes. I'm just getting home and don't want my mom to see me with the headset and start asking questions." Ned explained carefully before hanging up.

Peter swung from street to street, from neighborhood to neighborhood. He stopped in this little sandwich shop he'd found in Queens. Best meatball sub in the whole city, and all for under $4.

The teen stopped and got a snack. It was hard to eat under his ski goggles, but he made it work with minimal sauce smudges on the eye piece.

"Thanks, Mr. Delmar!" Peter shouted as he threw away his trash. "As always, it's the best damn sandwich I've ever had."

The teen pushed open the door, smiling as he did so. Delmar never asked too many questions, he always let the superhero keep his identity and made sure to kick any one getting too nosy out of the shop. He was a sweet man - Peter was very happy to call him a friend.

Just as Peter stepped out of the doorway and onto the busy Queens street, he heard a familiar sound. Like jets, but smaller.

"Hey, kid."

Peter looked over, spotting several members of the team around him. Steve was leaned up against the wall behind Peter, Tony was on the other side of the street. Natasha, Bruce, and Clint were all scattered up and down the street, hiding in plain sight and disguised as regular civilians. Thor was on the corner, peeking from around a newspaper, which was suspicious in and of itself. Who read newspapers anymore?

"Can I help you?" Peter asked, carefully altering his tone and inflection so his father wouldn't recognize his voice.

"We'd like you to come with us. Nothing person, we'd just like to know a few things about the vigilante protecting New York." Steve used a soft tone, almost as if this was just a comfortable conversation between two friends. "So, if you'll cooperate, we'll head back to the Stark Tower and have a little chat about who you are and what you're doing out here."

Peter paled under his make-shift mask. "I'll have to decline," he said, stumbling only slightly. "Haven't you ever heard it's dangerous to go with strangers to a secondary location?"

Natasha almost laughed.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Steve said, lifting a hand and giving a signal to the rest of the team. "Because it really wasn't a choice."

Steve lunged, but Peter's senses warned him and he leapt backwards, pressing his hands against the brick of the building behind him and scurrying up the wall deftly. If was a little awkward because of how his hands were bent back behind him rather than in front of him as thought he was crawling, and dodging Steve shield and Tony's repulsor shots made it even worse.

"I'm tell you guys, I'm not a bad person!" Peter shouted as he climbed to the top of the building and hauled himself over the edge. "Really! There's no need for this!"

"You're right!" Natasha shouted back as she started up the fire escape on the building next door. "Just stop running and we can all talk this one out!"

Peter furrowed his brows. Natasha was one to talk about talking things out - from what Peter knew about her on missions, she was all 'shoot first, talk later'.

"You're not exactly one to talk," Peter said. He took a flying leap over the ledge of the rooftop and swung across the street, trying to get away from the team as quickly as he could. Natasha fired a few rounds at the teen, but only managed to land one in his shoulder. "Jesus Christ, lady!"

"You shot him!" Tony shouted in shock. "You shot him! That doesn't exactly inspire teamwork!"

"I panicked!" Natasha said in defense. "It's not like we had a plan going into this! We're just making it up as we go!"

Peter twisted around and fired a few webs at Natasha, ensnaring her gun and both her feet. "I'm sorry!" he yelled.

Peter twisted back, leaning forward to give himself some more momentum as he ran. Clint was there to stop him, catching the teen's hands as he plowed into Clint's chest headfirst. Peter quickly flipped up and knocked Clint in the chin with his knee, but not before Clint caught a quick glimpse of Peter up-close.

"Wait, holy shi-"

Peter landed a hard blow on Clint's forehead and the archer crumpled.

"I'm sorry!" Peter yelled again as he took off, Steve and Thor hot on his heels. Bruce and Tony were helping Clint and Natasha respectively.

Steve threw his shield, but Peter dodged it the first time it came by him and grabbed it out of the air the second time. He threw it back at Steve, who was caught off guard, and flicked a web to its edge. The shield pulled Peter across the rooftop fast and he released the web just in time for the shield to make contact with Steve's breastbone. Peter hopped up on a pipe, ran up the wall behind it a little, back-flipped off and behind Thor, and webbed him to the wall he'd just run up.

"I'm so sorry!" Peter yelled one last time before he disappeared into the foggy New York landscape.