Hiding in the Shadows

Chapter 18 - Peter Visits the Compound

I awoke the next morning, still weary from how much energy I had used the night before to save Peter's life. I knew I needed to get some fuel in my body, but the splitting head ache I had was not helping make me get out of bed. With a groan, I dragged myself from the soft mattress and padded into my bathroom to down some ibuprofen before stumbling to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Wow, you look like hell," Sam commented as I opened the fridge, looking for something to eat.

I slammed the door closed and spun around to face him, "you zip it, I was up all night finishing busy work so I could turn it in to Ms. You Need to Only Do Online Assignments Why Should I Actually Teach You."

"Woah, calm down, (Y/N), I'll, um, I'll make you some breakfast just sit down and please don't kill me," Sam bargained, pulling out some pancake mix. He then called out, "hey Steve, you wanna quit hanging with your boyfriend and help me out?"

"What do you need, Sam?" Steve sauntered in, Bucky trailing not far behind him.

"Tony's little demon is going to kill me if I don't make her breakfast, brew some coffee for her, will you?"

"So have the two of you made it official yet?" I raised my eyebrow, propping my feet up on the island and looking at Steve and Bucky.

Steve slipped his hand into Bucky's and replied, "I was beginning to wonder if I was simply being, what did you call it? Friend zoned?"

"That's exactly it, look at you Steve, you're all up to date on pop culture," I congratulated, overemphasizing my pride in him. "But seriously, you guys were both so blind if you thought the other one didn't love you."

As Steve made coffee and Sam cooked the pancakes, Bucky came and sat next to me, asking, "rough night?"

"The worst. It's literally a Saturday but one of my teachers decided to have a shit ton of meaningless work due at 11:59. I may have been able to complete that shit in my sleep, but unfortunately I couldn't submit it while I was sleeping."

"I don't think I ever thanked you, by the way," he spoke, changing the subject from my very well crafted lie. "For the intel on Steve, I mean. I-I don't think we would be together if it weren't for you playing matchmaker."

I shrugged, "it wasn't really anything, Buck, I was just sick of the two of you being so obviously in love but not telling the other."

"What's with all the noise in here?" My father asked as he entered the kitchen.

"(Y/N) has a teacher that's pissing her off," Sam replied for me, starting to pour the batter onto the griddle.

"Well that's not new news," Tony replied, with his usual cocky smirk. "What'd they do this time?"

"Kept me up all night," I replied, accepting the cup of coffee from Steve.

"And? We used to pull all nighters in the lab all the time," Tony commented, making me fear he was going to blow my cover story.

"Yeah, but I was doing something I enjoyed back then. I was wasting time doing busy work for a class I am learning absolutely nothing from. It wasn't my choice to get less than five hours of sleep every night and then pull an all nighter without any inspiration whatsoever," I complained, hoping that it would be enough to convince them.

"Mr. Stark, Spider-Man is at the compound and would like to talk to you," F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced, causing my head to whip up. Peter was here? What was he doing here? How was he feeling after last night?

"Alright, I'll meet him in my office," he replied, pouring himself a cup of coffee. Before leaving the room, he turned to me, "you know, you could have slept in, kid, you didn't need to be up at nine."

I shrugged, "I was hungry. Why's Peter here?"

"I'm not quite sure, he doesn't normally come to the compound without an invitation. I'm sure that nothing's wrong, though. If it's something I can discuss, I'll catch you up later."

"Yeah, like you told me my best friend was actually Spider-Man," I sassed, accepting a plate of pancakes from Sam.

"(Y/N), that was for his safety and so that you wouldn't have to hide the fact you knew who he was from him. Now that you know, I'm able to confide in you."

I watched as he left the room, deciding that I didn't trust him to tell me the reason behind Peter's visit. With a sigh, I pushed myself up from the island, "thanks for breakfast, Sam, but I think I'm going to eat it up in my room. I really don't feel like talking much anymore."

Once in my room, I put the food down on my desk and told (A/I) to connect to the laptop Tony had in his office. I had her play the audio, listening as Tony entered the room and welcomed Peter.

"I hope you don't find this rude, but what are you doing here, Pete? I thought we were going to keep more of a distance," my father spoke as they got settled in.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but I wanted to tell you something I found out last night," Peter replied, sounding a little nervous. I nearly choked on my coffee, wondering if he had somehow figured out who I was, what else could he have found out last night?

"Is it something bad?"

"Yeah, kind of. I'm sure you've heard of Shadow, right? Well we were fighting this dude with knives coming out of his arms and I got injured. When she went to help me, she started to take off my mask. I tried to stop her, but assured me that she already knew who I was. I-I don't understand how she could have figured that out. I think my identity has been leaked."

"What a second, you were working with Shadow?" Tony asked with clear shock in his voice. "How long has this been going on?"

"For a couple weeks, why? We make a pretty good team so we decided to patrol together."

"This is perfect, Pete, why didn't you tell me earlier? I have been trying to figure out Shadow's identity since she surfaced, but have failed. Perhaps you can discover who she is."

"How? She won't tell me anything, I tried getting information yesterday when I found out that she knew who I was."

"There has to be some way, follow her home or something. Pete, you are close to her, that means you can find out who she is. As for your identity, I'll determine how secure it is. It could be that when she started working with you, she had methods to find your name the way that I did. And if your name does get out there, I'd be happy to give you a position with the Avengers and you can devote your life to Spider-Man. Just focus on discovering who Shadow really is for the moment. She's too dangerous to be running lose the way she is."

"Dangerous?" Peter questioned in surprise. "No, Mr. Stark, she's not a threat, she's a really good person. She's been helping me protect innocents."

"Anyone who is untraceable and has that much power is a threat, regardless of the way she uses that power. Find out who she is, Pete."

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(A/N): I apologize for not posting yesterday, it completely slipped my mind! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter despite its late arrival!