If They Knew All About You

Of Trust and Lies

Sitting in his chair, Tony pondered the situation he had gotten himself into. An injured minor lying on his couch that a Super Soldier and his entourage were looking for, in fact, had demanded of him to bring in for questioning. He knew there was exactly one choice to be made here. One choice that was responsible and right. A 14-year-old boy could not jump around New York like that. He'd go and get himself killed, case in point his current state. Plus, Tony was part of a team and he should be pulling his weight. The only right choice was to get the boy to the Compound.

But then why did it feel like such a bad choice to make...

Tony bit his lip. His eyes darted up from his phone over to the kid on his couch. He almost dropped the device when he found the boy staring back at him. The Spiderling had woken up.

The boy averted his eyes and cleared his throat. "What time is it?" He looked around the living room, probably in search of a clock.

"Why? Do you have places to be?"

The Spiderling rolled his eyes at him.

"Did you just roll your eyes at me?"

The kid's hands came up to cover his face and with that the red flush that was creeping up from his neck.

"FRIDAY, time?"

"It's 12:35 am, Sir."

The Spiderling sat up on the couch with a start and immediately curled inwardly towards his knife wound.

"Seriously, kid!" Tony actually jumped up out of the chair himself. "I'd really appreciated it if you didn't pull out your stitches!"

The boy groaned and hid his face behind his pulled up knees.

"You alright?"

"Yeah... yeah..."

"Did it feel like something ripped?"

"No... It's... it's alright."

"I..." Tony cleared his throat, sitting back down. "I found some stuff for you to wear. There's a room down the hall, where you can sleep."

Peter looked up at him, biting his lip.

"Again... if there's someone I should be calling..." He raised his eyebrows at him expectantly, phone still in hand.

The boy let himself fall back against the pillow. He stared at the hands in his lap, nervously picking at his fingernails.

Tony tried to keep his hands steady. His fingers twitched but he suppressed the urge to drum them against his phone.

"You're going to bring me to them, aren't you?"

Tony's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"I... yeah... I mean I guess... If you tell me who-"

"To the Avengers." The kid swallowed hard, his eyes still cast down to his hands. "They... they want you to... to bring me in and... and you're gonna do that..." The kid's eyes turned to him. "You're planning to do that... in the morning... aren't you?"

Tony sat up straight. Alright, he had not expected the boy to be this perceptive. Or maybe he'd just let himself be blinded by his own hope to get out of this whole thing without getting sued over child endangerment. If the kid just told him about his family, Tony could hand him over to them and possibly pretend he didn't know anything about any of this.

"Listen, kid—"

The boy sat back up - considerably more carefully - just as Tony started speaking, fists clenched, eyes wide and pleading.