#and ben needs to make sure he keeps that scholarship because peter needs to go somewhere in the world even if ben couldn't

[dykeninthdoctor]

Sending much love and an enormous smiley face any particular pairing u were thinking about re: the trope of someone crying by the person they love’s bedside??? Was it rhodeytony

sending just as much love!!!! and actually i was thinking about a father-son duo, not really any in particular, but it happened in the show i was watching in that context, so like. honestly? as i think about it rn? peter and ben. 

it’s anon hour!! ask me anything!!

[foiblepnoteworthy]

Hello there I am salty here’s the standard structure for a Spider-Man story:

Peter fights new villain Tough-Man. Tough-Man wins the fight because he is strong enough to tear webbing. Peter had to miss a date with his girlfriend so he could be at the fight. During the fight he sees a motorbike and thinks about how much he wants one.

Peter takes his pictures to the Bugle and manages to wheedle a decent amount of cash out of Jonah. Jonah makes a comment about how Spidey’s probably working with Tough-Man.

Half of the paycheque goes to ingredients for a new stronger webbing formula. Some goes towards rent on his apartment. (His roommate, Harry Osborne, offers to cover for Peter, but Peter refuses. They have had this conversation before.) He visits Aunt May to give her the rest of the money. He has to take the bus, and thinks about how much he wants a motorbike.

Aunt May tries to refuse the money, tells Peter to buy himself something nice, says she found herself a job. Peter doesn’t want her to have to work considering her age and her health, and notices that she must have sold her and Ben’s wedding china. He laments that he could have helped her a lot more if he didn’t have to buy the new web ingredients. He feels guilty for wanting a motorbike.

Peter works on the webs and does his homework. He’s really behind and is stressed out about it – he needs his scholarship so he needs to have good grades. At college the next day, his girlfriend comes up to him and says she saw his pictures so she’s not too mad that he missed their date. She says she understands that the Bugle comes first, but she’s still clearly bummed about it. She asks if they can study together and because he has to keep an eye on his new webs Peter can’t. She demands that they have a date in two days, now annoyed, but Peter doesn’t have any money. She looks confused, because she knows he just got paid, but offers to pay anyway. Peter knows he’s on the last straw with her, and that he’s already incredibly lucky she’s giving him so many chances.

He works on his webs basically around the clock, missing out on spending time with people, and then has a day spare before Tough-Man would resurface. He could have spent that time differently. He calls girlfriend and says he’s free now and she insists on seeing him when they’d agreed and not sooner. He knows that being on time to the date is a test. She also asks him what he’s been up to, clearly fishing, and he rebuffs her as nicely as he can.

Girlfriend has a scene where she talks with a friend about how Peter’s clearly got something going on, and she wants to support him if he’ll only ask, but doesn’t want to stay on with him if he’ll continue with whatever this is without help. She feels hurt that he won’t come to her, is upset to have to see him struggling, and doesn’t think it bodes well for any future in their relationship that he won’t ask her for help or be honest about what’s going on. Friend says she should break it off with him, or at least only stay with him if he asks for help; she says he shouldn’t make her beg him to let her help him, it’s not good for her.

He wins the new fight with Tough-Man with his new webs, and spends the whole time aware that he is going to be late for his date. He makes sure to get pictures as an excuse, but knows that’s still pushing it. At the end of the fight, he notices Tough-Man dropped a wad of cash that wouldn’t be missed. Peter thinks about all the problems this would solve for him – Aunt May, rent, dates, motorbike - but with great power comes great responsibility so he puts the money wherever it’s meant to be. Taking the time to do so means he's late to his date.

Girlfriend breaks up with him. She’s nice about it, but she wants someone who’s actually around. There is a clear hesitation where she expects him to explain or ask for her help. Maybe she prompts him, even. He considers telling her he’s Spider-Man, but he knows he can’t. He also knows that would not fix the actual problem of him being too busy for her. He feels guilty for trying to date at all. He feels very lonely.

He hates being Spider-Man and wishes he could stop, but sees some reminder of the good he did that day and accepts that this is his lot in life. END

Themes: refusing to accept help, poverty, interpersonal relationships, sacrifice. 

It may be a character flaw in Peter that he needs to accept more from those around him rather than taking things on his shoulders, or perhaps all of his actions were necessary. The audience may debate it amongst themselves.

Could further these themes through development with the villain, who might prod at him being alone (perhaps there’s a team of villains instead who flaunt their teamwork?), or offer a partnership; or he might be doing this because he is also in poverty and in need of help, and found himself trapped being a villain because he refused to accept support from those around him. (A plot like this might change the ending: Peter opens up and accepts help, having learned from Tough-Man that he needs to take help or he could end up like him.)

This story makes for a pretty harsh few days in the life of Peter Parker, but it’s all pretty standard in the comics and the better tv shows and films. Maybe this would be softer in something serialised, different problems drawn out over different instalments, but a film would/should have this level of consequences for his actions. Obviously there should be more to this than this (developed relationships, more fights, different structure, etc), but I’m being concise.

With mcu Spidey this story would play out so different it’s not even funny. In the mcu he’s either financially supported by Tony or money just isn’t a thing? It never comes up. Most of his close friends know he’s Spider-Man so secret identity issues don’t come up. When people don’t know about his identity they’re still pretty chill about things. (See: Liz not being annoyed at him for missing the dance; Aunt May not noticing he’s out all the time?; no one seeming to notice that he’s suddenly busy all the time.) Peter is not in a position where he is expected to take care of Aunt May, nor does she appear to make any sacrifices to keep him happy. Peter seems to have plenty of free time to spend on patrol even though he isn’t needed. He does not deal with making and taking care of his own equipment; and when he does have to do things he has Ned and Tony for support. If he is behind on his homework, we don’t know about it.

This doesn’t mean mcu Spidey can’t have good stories, it just means that none of the themes or beats that one would expect from a Spidey story come up. None of what makes the character interesting is in there.

[strawberrysoup]

Let’s Review || Chapter 3

Peter Parker knew that his big sister would do anything for him to be safe and happy. She’d given up everything for him twice over already and would do it again in a heartbeat. And that’s why, when the criminal mastermind Tony Stark started inextricably following him around, he didn’t say a word. Because he knew without a doubt Penny would do whatever she had to if it meant keeping Peter safe. He had to protect her, just like she always protected him. He never considered what would happen if Stark decided both Parker siblings were worth taking. Never considered who else in Stark’s inner circle would agree. He just wanted to protect her and yet somehow, they both ended up with needles in their necks.

relationship: Steve Rogers/Original Female Character/Bucky Barnes, background Peter Parker/Tony Stark

rating: Explicit

warnings: Dark Steve Rogers, Dark Bucky Barnes, Dark Tony Stark, Dark Avengers, kidnapping, non-con/dub-con elements, underage Peter Parker, emotional and psychological abuse, very dark

Penny had sent Peter off to bed before allowing herself to cry for a solid two hours until she passed out on the couch in her work clothes. Waking up was a trial, her head was pounding and she hadn’t pulled the curtains over the living room window closed before falling asleep so it was ten times brighter than it needed to be. She hadn’t set an alarm, but she could hear Peter moving around in the bedroom so it was around 6 AM.

“Peter, you good?” She called out absently, the usual morning greeting that meant ‘are you moving fast enough to make it to school on time?’

“I’m good,” his voice was quieter than usual, dejected in a way that broke a piece of her heart.

She sat up on the couch and put her face in her hands, elbows digging sharply into her thighs. Everything felt off, like the earth had shifted on its axis but only by a few degrees. There had been several times in her life when everything had changed in the blink of an eye. Her entire world stopped spinning, first when her mom and dad died, then again with uncle Ben, and again with aunt May. Every time it had eventually started back again, but she’d always had an anchor.

She’d always had Peter, when everything went wrong. Having to start from scratch, to rebuild her entire life, was always possible because she had Peter. He was her rock, her reason for pushing forward to fix everything that went wrong. To restabilize.

When she’d been date raped in a club in Queens half a year ago, it had been traumatic. Brock had been sniffing around for ages before she finally agreed to go out with him and then he turned into a fucking monster at the drop of a hat, the piece of shit. She hadn’t meant to let Peter find out about any of it. She’d called a friend to get her from the club, to help her home. She’d been traumatized and angry, half drugged by the time they got to the apartment and screaming about the injustice.

Peter had helped her into the shower, sent her friend off for food, and held her while she screamed and cried and otherwise lost her fucking mind. By the next morning she’d gotten a note slipped under the door, essentially telling her to fuck off and keep her mouth shut or else. As if she’d even considered going to the police— what would she have said? ‘This dude I talked to for months slipped me drugs and raped me in the back of a club. No, there were no witnesses. No, I didn’t call the police. No, I didn’t go to the hospital.’ Stupid. She’d been stupid, as always.

Getting into such a stupid situation had spiraled into a rabbit hole of almost inconceivable bad luck. If she hadn’t let herself get duped in that stupid club, Peter never would’ve gone to Stark Tower. Never would’ve gotten spotted by the man himself. And now, she wouldn’t have Peter with her when she rebuilt after this most recent, life altering tragedy.

But he would be safe. There wasn’t anything else that she needed, or could hope for, other than Peter’s safety. Besides, prison might be a nice reprieve from the 108 hour work weeks she currently endured. And they had hospitals in prison, maybe they had dentists? She hadn’t been to the dentist since before aunt May died. Would she go to prison or jail? Penny didn’t know the difference between the two, honestly.

Standing up from the couch, her eyes landed on her laptop. It was sitting open on the dining room table, plugged in because it was so old it never held a charge. She should make a to-do list for the day, starting with calling into all three of her jobs and making Peter breakfast before he had to leave for school. There was a lot she had to get done before her brother got home from school today.

“Hey Pen, have you seen my biology textbook?”

“No babe, check the table by the front door,” she stretched her arms over her head and yawned, trying to work some of the kinks out of her body from sleeping on the couch, “do you have enough time to stick around for breakfast?”

Peter stopped on the other side of the couch, watching his sister act like it was a normal day, a frown on his face. They always joked that he was the smart one. Peter could recite pi to the 40th digit, explain thermodynamics, and had gotten into a super prestigious science academy on scholarship. Usually, he’d call himself the logical sibling, the one who could see the best course of action and follow it.

But looking at his sister he was realizing there was a level of maturity missing from his logical thinking. He might’ve been the smarter one, but Penny was the one who was going to get them through this hellscape. She was calm, he could see in her eyes that the wheels were turning and that she was in so much pain, but she was calm and collected and was going to work through the day to make sure her batshit crazy plan worked out so that he would be safe.

“Yeah, I’ve got time.”

“Sounds good,” she stripped her socks off clumsily while walking into the kitchen, dropping them on the floor as she went, “hey, open up all of the bills on the counter and leave them scattered around while I cook. I want it to look like I’ve been ignoring them and they’re covered in crap.”

Peter dropped his head back, staring up at the ceiling blankly. Penny was pretty good at covering up her emotions but the level of dissociation she was currently displaying was impressive. He retrieved all of the bills from the basket on the kitchen counter and brought them into the living room, dropping them onto the laptop’s keyboard and kicking his feet up on the table before he began ripping them open. He tossed the empty envelopes over his shoulder absently as he went while arranging the bills into a pile to be thrown strategically around later.

“Maybe I should see if Flash will beat me up today at school,” he cringed at the $95 electric bill, knowing that was pretty high for them, “some bruises and cuts might help us when the social workers show up.”

“Don’t get yourself beat up, bud, you don’t have enough padding on your bones to keep everything from snapping under pressure.”

“Well maybe if you actually fed me sometimes, you neglectful monster.”

“Savage, Peter!” Penny’s gasp from the kitchen was full of laughter despite the painful conversation, “keep that up for the social worker.”

“So aside from trashing my things, throwing out anything edible in the kitchen, and destroying the apartment, have anything fun planned today?”

The sound of Penny cursing, followed by the loud clang of a pan hitting the floor had Peter shifting in his seat, angling around to see through the doorway to the kitchen. She hadn’t hurt herself and there was no mess, so he didn’t bother getting up to go help.

“Actually,” she made a pathetic sound upon realizing the milk in the fridge was expired, “fuck. Oh, actually I’m gonna go get my hair and nails done. So it looks like I blow our money on frivolous things instead of like, food and clothes for you.”

“Nice, you should get one of those stupid expensive coffees from those hipster places on your way back. Just for emphasis.”

Once Penny actually managed to cook, she was pretty good at it. She usually cooked what she could for all major Jewish holidays when their budget could stretch to accommodate it. Otherwise she didn’t get around to it all that often, except on her days off, so Peter considered it a treat when she made breakfast for him before school. She shoved the laptop back on the table and put a plate down in its place, revealing a heaping egg scramble and toast.

“I think we have some major issues,” Peter stated casually as they ate, avoiding the chunks of turkey bacon to save for the end, “I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t be joking about today. Or tomorrow. Or any of it.”

“I figure we’ve got two options,” Penny kicked her feet up next to his, balancing her plate in her lap, “Cry about it or laugh about it. We cried about it last night and it gave me a headache. So, might as well try laughing.”

Peter shrugged but nodded in agreement, “So I think I’m gonna become a supervillain.”

“Oh? Why?”

“I could break you out of jail, bring down Tony Stark and all his minions, steal a whole bunch of money and then we could abscond off to some private island and live the rest of our lives in peace.”

“Except for when you have to go be a supervillain?”

“Yeah, exactly.”

Penny gave a barking laugh and leaned over to shuffle a hand annoyingly through his hair, letting him slap her away like usual. The casual, relaxed attitude they shared was obviously forced, their eyes were full of despair, but they could at least pretend for a while. Pretending that everything was okay would at least get them through the next few days.

“Alright you dope, head to school. I’ll see you when you get home.”

Peter stood up from the table and pulled Penny up after him, wrapping her into a tight hug. He’d grown over the last year and stood several inches taller than her now. Sometimes, hugging her now felt weird because for so long he’d been smaller than her. He vividly remembered being engulfed in her arms, being surrounded by her scent and warmth and how safe it always made him feel. He hoped that she felt the same way he used to, that his hugs made her feel warm and fuzzy.

“See you after school,” he choked out after a moment, pulling away and darting out of the room without looking at her too closely.

It would hurt too much.

***

Nobody had left the living room, other than Rhodey, in over 12 hours now. Steve and Bucky were still in the recliner together, eyes glued to the TV screen showing the Parker’s living room. Peter had left for school about 20 minutes ago and Penelope Actual Angel Parker had disappeared into the bathroom.

Clint had ordered food from the kitchens about an hour ago and was waiting by the elevator for the chefs to drop it off. They’d all lamented the fact they couldn’t eat the breakfast Penny made with the Parker siblings but had satisfied themselves by listening in on their conversation with stalkerish intensity. Usually Penny didn’t leave the laptop sitting open when she wasn’t using it, so it had been another shocking revelation into their lives.

“Peter’s face while he was opening those bills makes me wonder if she usually hides them from him,” Bruce commented absently, cheek resting in his hand as he scrolled through the files on his laptop.

Instead of the lab reports from the previous night, he was looking through Penny and Peter’s medical histories—HIPAA be damned. Peter got regular physicals each year, was up to date on all of his vaccinations, had minor asthma but no other chronic issues. Penny’s medical history stopped around when her uncle Ben died and she dropped out of high school. She had all her vaccinations and was in the 2nd year of a 3 year birth control implant, no known conditions except for possible anemia. She hadn’t gone to the hospital after the rape, so he would need to run an STD panel just in case. A diet meant to promote weight gain might also be a good idea.

“I’m sure she didn’t want them to know how dire their situation was,” Wanda stated, “If given the chance, I would’ve hidden things like that from Pietro.”

“So they’re Jewish like y’all, right?” Sam squinted at the screen, pointing to a wall decoration in the apartment, “or is that a Buddhist thing?”

“A Hamsa,” she didn’t look up from her phone, having seen the wall decoration next to the window the first time she’d watched the webcam stream nearly a month ago, “they have it because they’re Jewish but it’s used in other cultures too.”

“Do we need to make sure we have anything… particularly Jew-y for them?”

Wanda finally looked up from her phone, eyebrow raised derisively, “did you get anything particularly Jew-y for me when I moved in?”

“I’m going to learn to make Challah,” Bucky intervened in the conversation before it could become a fight, having been looking up traditional Israeli and Jewish dishes for several hours now, “do you have any recipes Wanda?”

The two devolved into a conversation about homemade breads and the nuances of kosher foods, all the while Wanda scrolled through Peter and Penny’s bank statements. She was looking for their overall spending habits, what was bought for Peter and how often and when and what Penny bought for herself. The former list included the amount of clothing one would assume necessary for a growing teenage boy, along with an above average amount of groceries. There was far less fun stuff, like video games and extensive Lego sets (which they knew Peter loved). Usually those were bought around Peter’s birthday or near Hanukkah. Penny’s spending on herself was generally relegated to work clothes and toiletries, with the occasional splurge on nail polish.

“We had a Jewish neighbor growing up, you remember Buck? Ms. Goldstein made that soup,” Steve scratched his head, trying to remember the name of it but failing.

“Matzah ball soup,” Bucky supplied, glancing at the screen of Steve’s phone from his position in the man’s lap.

He’d started going through the Parker sibling’s social media accounts early in the morning, wondering who was going to put up a fuss over their potential disappearances and how much it was going to interfere with business. Not that it mattered, business was business and home and family came first but it still would be good to have a plan for any fallout.

Peter had all the social media accounts a teenager could want; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, TikTok, everything. He overshared on the internet just as much as any other Gen Z kid, although he seemed to favour Twitter and Instagram over the others. Instagram was updated almost daily with pictures of his friends, from school and clubs, pictures of scenery taken around New York. It was actually pretty cute and a touch artistic. He had a decent amount of followers on it too.

Penny on the other hand only had an Instagram page and a Pinterest. The former wasn’t updated much since their aunt May passed away, the recent pictures were mostly of food she’d made or of her and Peter on holidays. He wasn’t sure if the followers on her Pinterest were friends or strangers. There were a whole slew of cute pictures on her ‘Memories’ board, several of which Bucky watched Steve save to his phone. One in particular, of Penny squeezing Peter’s face close to hers while both stuck their tongues out at the camera, was saved as his new home screen.

It would be difficult to spirit either of the siblings away without some repercussions. Peter had some very close friends, MJ and Ned in particular, and was involved in tons of extracurricular activities. If he disappeared, an AMBER alert would go out within a day. Penny wasn’t particularly close to anyone, but she did have several coworkers who would notice very quickly if she went missing. She had been working in the same three places for 3 years and was a well-established and liked staff member.

“We may need to stage some sort of accident,” Steve rubbed a hand over his mouth as he scrolled through Peter’s Snapchat memories, “Peter’s friends are very close and Penny’s barely ever missed a day of work. People are going to cause a stink if they just disappear.”

“Car accident? Fire? Carbon monoxide?”

“Something that won’t leave behind a body,” Natasha drummed her fingers against her leg, humming in thought as the elevator opened and Clint retrieved the cart of food that had been sent up, “probably a fire. Or we could stage a kidnapping and blame it on someone else.”

“Both,” Clint had half of a croissant stuffed in his mouth, spitting out pieces as he spoke, “set up a kidnapping, burn some bodies, set it up to look like Penny and Peter.”

“Who’s the kidnapper?”

“How about this dumb mother fucker.”

Rhodey’s voice came from the stairwell, the man himself emerging while shoving a heavily beaten and gagged Brock Rumlow through the door. His arms were bound from the elbow down and he lost his balance, landing with a heavy thud only to be kicked hard in the side by the very angry James Rhodes and forced back to his feet.

“He confess?” Tony’s back was to them as Rhodey pushed him farther into the room, making himself a cup of coffee from the French press that had been sent up on the cart.

“More or less.”

One of the things Tony had learned over his long career was that anticipation was almost worse than a beating. Adrenaline was a devastating drug when applied as a method of torture. He could almost feel Rumlow’s heart beating faster, the sweat dripping down his brow. He hummed quietly, taking a sip of his coffee before nodding to himself and turning around.

Rhodey had the man on his knees near the coffee table, head bowed in a mixture of panic and fear. He was bleeding from the head, from his nose, dark bruises were beginning to bloom across the bridge of his nose and around his neck. Rhodes had done a number on the man in the last couple of hours.

“Did you send a letter to Penelope Parker, threatening her younger brother if she went to the police?” His voice was low and he crossed the living room in with an unhurried stride, coming to sit on the couch just inches away from where the man knelt.

The reply was muffled but obviously not a yes or no answer. Tony was well versed in what begging sounded like through a gag, how ‘please’ and ‘don’t hurt me’ came out when one’s tongue was held down by fabric. Brock Rumlow might’ve been a big bastard, but when confronted with his own mortality he became a simpering baby just like all the rest. In all honesty, Tony had a thing for begging anyway.

“Now that didn’t sound like the answer to the question I asked you.”

From his position in Steve’s lap Bucky pitched an empty wine glass at Rumlow’s face. The stem snapped off, the bowl of the glass breaking against his brow bone and leaving a jagged cut in its wake. Bruce rolled his neck at the sound of the rest of the glass hitting the ground and shattering, the sharp noise irritating his always present headache.

“You’re making us upset Brucie here, my man,” Tony stated with a flippant wave of his hand in the scientist’s direction, still taking small, satisfying sips of coffee, “which is a huge mistake. He gets pretty dangerous when you make him mad.”

The exact state of being of most of Tony’s close associates was more… fantastical, than most of the population. Mad scientists had been around for centuries and so had horrible things, like eugenics and human experimentation. He had a tendency to pick up strays at the best of times and the exciting strays, the ones who were really special, he fought to keep. It had started with Rhodey and Clint. They weren’t genetically altered, just insane at the best of times.

He’d met Rhodey in university. At the time, the man was being paid to watch Tony by his father and report back on his activities. Tony had paid better and overtime gained Rhodey’s loyalty as well as friendship. They’d been inseparable and Rhodey had been the one who thwarted Clint’s assassination attempt on Tony. It hadn’t been anything personal, of course, Clint was a world-renowned assassin and was one of the best—if you could pay him the right amount, he was willing to take out anyone. Then he’d been waylaid by a Very Angry Colonel Rhodes. Clint was easily persuaded to switch targets for the correct amount of money and soon Tony had come to see him as less of an employee and more of a friend.

Natasha and the Old Men had come next. From a situation similar to Clint’s, Natasha had been sent to off Tony. Not only had he offered her a better deal, but also protection from the Red Room, a branch of the former KGB that specialized in stealing little girls and genetically altering them. She didn’t hate the violence or the killing, she hated being controlled.  

The freezer burned boyfriends had come along looking for Howard Stark, who had apparently betrayed them (and the United States as a whole, actually) in the 40’s in a whole bunch of exciting and horrible ways. Bucky had been traumatized, a veritable murder machine and Steve hadn’t been much better off. Tony had kept them out of the public eye so they could live in relative peace and in turn had become emotionally attached. Especially upon realizing that Bucky was likely his father’s unknowing murderer, which was endearing.

Bruce had been Tony’s next acquisition and the only deliberate one. There had been reports of some sort of monster raging across the globe. It had taken ages and lots of illegal activity in the form of JARVIS hacking satellites and cameras all over the world but they’d found Bruce hiding away in India, providing illicit medical attention to the poor. He’d been attempting to copy the Super Soldier Serum used on The Olds and turned himself into a monster in the process. Tony adored the man.

Then came Thor and his adopted brother Loki, who had been experimented on by their father from a very young age. They’d lost an older sister to a process of attempted Berserker serums and they themselves were forever genetically altered. Thor was in slightly better control of his rages than Loki, but both came to Tony seeking asylum when their father had decided to end his experiments and terminate all test subjects. They were strong and brutal and Thor’s loyalty was unwavering, which was nice because Loki’s only loyalty was to his brother. It was a compromise Tony could live with.

Sam and Wanda and Pietro had been picked up by Steve and Clint respectively, the former a veteran and counselor who turned to murder for hire after being honorably discharged from service and the latter a pair of genetic experiments who’d accidentally stumbled upon Clint after escaping imprisonment. All three had been brought back to the Tower and into the fold.

Pepper and Happy had been picked up along the way of course, his right and left hands for all intents and purposes. Pepper had helped him build the legitimate face of his business and Happy had run interference in all illegal aspects, as well as literally putting himself between Tony and danger.

A short whimper of sheer terror escaped Rumlow before he seemed to almost crumple in front of them, folding in half and hitting the ground. Tony raised an eyebrow as the man landed just a few inches from his foot and groaned in annoyance before dumping the rest of his coffee on the man.

“Don’t pass out on me now, Rumlow, we’ve got— Oh, would you look at that.”

Tony drew the attention of the whole room to the TV screen, where Penelope Precious Parker had emerged from the bathroom in clean clothes. Her long hair was dripping down her back, dampening her white t-shirt just enough that Tony sent Clint a look that said Watch Yourself, Pervert. The same look was not given to Steve or Bucky, although with the way their eyes followed the woman, it should’ve been.

Rhodey bent over and hauled Rumlow back to his knees, turning him to face the TV and yanking his head back, “You see her, Rumlow? You remember her?”

Another whimper, this one with enough inflection to mean ‘yes’. Tony nodded and let out a deliberate, disappointed sigh.

“Yeah, I thought you might say that. You see, that precious little thing has just become one of the most important people in the world. In my world. Her little brother, who you threatened after hurting her in such a despicable way? He is my world,” Tony rolled his shoulders and stood up, walking around the table to get a closer look at the TV.

Penny had sat down on the couch, still well within view of the webcam, and was pulling on a pair of socks. A pair of beat up tennis shoes were on the floor next to her, having been fished out of the trunk that doubled as an end table. Bucky shifted out of the corner of his eye, watching as her shorts rode up higher on her shapely thighs as she contorted to pull on her sneakers. She continued on to gather all of her wet hair into her hands, tying it into a big messy bun on the top of her head.

“I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now,” he continued after a moment, “being confronted with your mistakes like this. You see, I go out of my way to not make mistakes. Or mistakes that could come back to haunt me, at least. I tie up my lose ends, I like pretty packages.”

“She’s a real pretty package,” Steve fucking sighed like a swooning school girl as Penny stood up and started shifting through some things on the table in front of her, bent over enough to offer an excellent view of her ass.

Tony snorted along with Sam and waved a dismissive hand in the blond’s direction. Steve and Bucky had been half infatuated with Penny when they thought she was a cruel, neglectful monster; now that they knew the truth, that Penny was precious and kind, they were falling in love just watching her through a screen.

“Now the point of this whole thing, unfortunately for you, is that you hurt Penny and you threatened Peter and by extension, you hurt and threatened me.”

There was a muffled ‘I didn’t know!’ through the gag and Tony Stark once again Did Not Roll His Eyes, because he was above that sort of thing.

“Of course not, that’s why this has to sting. You see, maybe if you just didn’t rape anyone this never would’ve happened. You never would’ve been in this situation. But instead you had to go and drug some poor girl and stick your disgusting dick in her and hurt her,” Tony rolled his head to the side and cracked his neck, “And once again, unfortunately for you, everything just kind of got more complicated from there. Because I’m not sure what to do with you at the moment.”

“Tones?” Rhodey’s eyebrows were furrowed, his hand still keeping Rumlow’s head in place.

“Right, right, let me explain to the room at large,” a flamboyant wave of Tony’s hand made everyone sit slightly straighter, “we have a couple of options going forward. The first, is take Peter and Penny, frame and kill Rumlow and be done with it,” several noises of agreement followed the sentence but Tony shook his hands again to quiet them, “Or, we could take the babies, frame Rumlow, but not kill him.”

“Why not kill him?”

“Because then we could let Peter do it. Or Penny,” Tony tapped chin and began to pace, “or, because they’re both going to be very upset in the first few months, we could use him as… incentive, to be good.”

“Hm, killing him in front of them is ballsy,” Sam stood over next to the cart of food, making himself a plate and a cup of coffee, “You want to induce Stockholm Syndrome, but the shock might be too much.”

“Are you worried about them reacting to a murder in general or like, feeling bad he was killed because of them?”

“Both, either,” Sam shrugged, “pick your favourite.”

“Why don’t we keep him around for a bit, we don’t necessarily have to make the decision today,” Steve suggested, shifting Bucky off of his lap and standing up.

The imposing man made his way towards Rumlow with his usual level of heavy swagger, natural as a result of his musculature and dimensions. Rhodey took several steps back at the approach, recognizing the glint of near ferality in the former Captain’s eyes. Getting in the blond’s way was in no one’s best interest and besides, Rhodey trusted the man implicitly. The man’s hand came down on Rumlow’s head almost gently, his fingers carding through his hair and tilting his head back to look him in the eyes. His face was swollen from Rhodey’s heavy hits already, but he could still see.

“Besides, me and Bucky are gonna need a playmate for a while. All that pent-up aggression—it’s gotta go somewhere, right, Brock?”

[whumphoarder]

D is for Diploma

Summary: Between all of his commitments, Peter’s grades start slipping, putting him in danger of losing his academic scholarship to Midtown. Stressed and guilt-ridden about the effect this will have on May’s finances, he ends up worrying himself sick and having a breakdown in Tony’s lab.

Word count: 3,759

Genre: emotional hurt/comfort, angst, hurt/comfort

A/N: Thanks so much to @xxx-cat-xxx and @sallyidss for beta reading and encouragement <3

Link to read on Ao3

“But how are you getting a C in gym class?” Ned balks at his friend. He’s peering over Peter’s shoulder as he scrolls through his quarterly grades on the school library computer. “Everyone gets an A. I’m getting an A. All you gotta do is show up and at least look like you’re trying and boom, automatic A.”

Peter rubs a hand at the back of his neck sheepishly. “So, remember after the Rhino dude attacked me, how I had all those bruises that didn’t heal right away?”

“Yeah...” Ned recalls, frowning. “But you said they didn’t hurt.”

“They didn’t! Not really, anyway,” Peter says quickly. “But like, I didn’t really want everyone to see that, so I kinda didn’t change into my uniform. And apparently if you don’t change, Wilson just marks you as absent.”

“Ah.” Ned gives him a sympathetic wince. “Yeah, that’s lame.”

“What I don’t understand,” MJ pipes up, glancing up from the book she’s had her nose in all afternoon, “is the D in Spanish. Rodríguez isn’t even a hard teacher.”

Peter’s face flushes with embarrassment. “So… I might have forgotten to submit a couple assignments.”

She quirks an eyebrow. “You forgot? He reminds us what’s due, like, three times every class period.”

“I mean, it was just the take-home quiz...” he mumbles. “And some of the homework sheets. Oh, and that cultural essay thing about the ancient Mayans.”

“Peter.” She blinks at him. “That was like, twenty percent of our grade.”

“Well, to be fair, I did have a concussion,” he defends. “It was a little hard to remember stuff that week.”

Ned rolls his eyes. “Oh yeah, that makes it so much better.”

Peter huffs out a laugh. Honestly, between all the hours he’s been logging lately as Spider-Man, his frequent internship nights with Tony in the lab, the increasingly demanding decathlon practice schedule as their team moves toward regionals, and the weekend shifts he’s started picking up at Delmar’s (because, let’s face it, the vigilante life isn’t the most lucrative career path—the occasional free churro notwithstanding), Peter thinks he’s been doing quite well juggling everything. Sure, his grades aren’t quite the neat row of A’s and the occasional B he’s grown accustomed to throughout his school career, but it’s not like he’s failing anything.

“I’ve just got different priorities now,” Peter says with a shrug. “I still show up and I’m passing all my classes, so what does the grade matter?”

MJ returns the shrug, looking vaguely impressed with him. “It doesn’t really. I’ve always been morally opposed to using arbitrary numerical values as a measure of academic success.” She shifts her gaze back to her novel before adding, offhandedly, “But you gotta admit, the tuition break is nice.”

And in those nine little words, she might as well have punched him in the gut.

“Oh shit,” Peter breathes out. Hurriedly, he starts gathering books together and getting to his feet.

“What?” Ned asks, looking puzzled.

“Um, I gotta go,” he blurts. And then before anyone can say another word, he’s out of the library doors.

X

The Parkers aren’t poor, exactly.

May works full-time at her job as a neonatal nurse, besides picking up extra shifts one or two nights a month to give them a bit of cushion. Between her wages and the social security checks that come every month from Ben’s pension, the two of them get by. Sure, Peter might not have name-brand clothes or the coolest tech or even a pair of gym shoes without a bit of duct tape on the soles, but there’s always been food on the table and a roof over his head, so Peter’s never stressed that much about their financial situation.

Maybe that’s how he managed to completely forget about his academic scholarship.

He’s qualified for it ever since he passed Midtown’s entrance exams in the top tenth percentile back in eighth grade. The money is substantial—slightly over two-thirds of the tuition cost is paid for him—and the scholarship automatically renews every semester provided he maintains a grade point average of 3.3 or higher, which has never been a problem for him.

That is, up until now. Factoring in his B in history, the C’s in gym and trig, and his D in Spanish, his GPA is currently sitting at 2.9.

Peter is going to lose his scholarship.

X

With less than two weeks left before finals, Peter starts cramming in all the studying he can manage. He stays up late, pouring over his trigonometry notes, trying to work his way through all the practice problems he’s been slacking on. He makes a point of showing up three minutes early to gym class every day, even if he has to use a bit of his enhanced speed to get all the way there from the chem labs on the other side of the building. On the train, he quizzes himself on the names of historical figures and the dates of battles long-since fought. Some of his teachers are willing to work with him, letting him turn in late assignments for partial credit or giving him additional projects to complete.

And then there’s Spanish.

“Isn’t there some kind of extra credit project I can do?” Peter begs. “Anything?”

It’s his study hall period and he’s at Señor Rodríguez’s desk for the second day in a row, desperately hoping for anything that could give his grade the boost it needs.

“I’m sorry, Peter,” his teacher says, sounding genuinely regretful. “But you’ve had countless opportunities this semester to get your grade up via homework and test retakes, all of which you neglected to take advantage of. Coming to me with less than ten days left in the semester requesting make up work for assignments worth significant percentages of your grade is simply too little, too late.”

“But… I had a concussion that week,” Peter argues. “Like, right when it was all due. And I would have done the work before, but…” He trails off, unable to finish his sentence without explaining his unorthodox extracurriculars. “I...I was busy,” he concludes weakly.

Rodríguez raises an eyebrow a little skeptically. “I didn’t receive any notes from the nurse’s office about this concussion.”

Peter glances down to his feet. “Well, that’s because she didn’t know, exactly…”

No one did—not even May. After getting all those bruises the week before, Peter didn’t want anyone to know he was hurt again so soon. Apparently Karen hadn’t deemed the blow to the head he took severe enough to override his wishes. He’d just dealt with the headaches and brain fog the best he could and sort of floated through that week on his own. In hindsight, maybe not his best plan.

“Well, I guess this is a good life lesson for you then, Peter,” Rodríguez says. His voice is firm, but not unkind. “Part of growing up is taking responsibility and learning to communicate with authority figures before you get into trouble.”

“Right, and I get that,” Peter babbles, “I just—”

His teacher holds up a finger, quieting him. “My job is to train my students for success in the real world, and sometimes that means reminding you that actions have consequences. ¿Lo entiendes?”

And Peter finds himself nodding. Because, despite the pool of dread growing in his gut, he does understand. He wants to be mad, wants to say it’s unfair and the universe gave him a raw deal and he doesn’t deserve this. But he can’t. Rodríguez is right.

And Peter’s still fucked.

X

By the time Friday rolls around, Peter’s barely functioning. Besides all the extra assignments and studying for finals, he’s had three days in a row of Decathlon practices, followed by some particularly eventful evening patrols that all went quite a bit later than his usual curfew of ten p.m.

He can’t get much of his lunch down today, which does nothing to appease his friends’ concerned looks. The food seems tasteless in his mouth and he’s so tired he nearly nods off into his cafeteria chicken nuggets.

When school finally lets out, he’s surprised and a little disheartened to see the sleek black car waiting for him in the bus circle. He’d totally forgotten it was an internship weekend.

Figures.

X

Peter groans as he disconnects the circuits he just switched out. He’s been trying to fix a bug in his suit’s heater upgrade for the last twenty minutes now, but nothing he attempts is working and his head is throbbing so much that his vision is hazy.

“Just try again, kid,” Tony encourages absently from across the workshop. He’s not looking up, fully engrossed as he is in his own project. “You got this.”

“Yeah...” Peter mutters under his breath. Blinking a few times, he rubs a hand at his eyes to try to clear his vision.

He connects a different wire. That one doesn’t yield any better results, so he unplugs it and tries again. Then again. Then again. He’s fairly sure he’s already tried the next combination, but he’s so tired he can’t remember so he does it again just to be sure. Nothing.

Peter is so frustrated now that his hands are actually shaking. He pauses and takes a deep breath before trying again.

This time, the wire sparks at him.

“I can’t do this!” Peter exclaims, shoving the suit away from him across the table. “I can’t do anything! Why am I so fucking stupid?!”

He’s breathing heavily now, tears clouding his vision even further. Within a few seconds he feels Tony’s hand rest heavily on his shoulder. It should be comforting, but it only makes Peter feel pathetic.

“C’mon, just take a deep breath and—”

“No!” Peter blurts, shaking away from Tony’s grip. “That’s not going to fix anything! I can’t fix this—don’t you see?!”

Stepping backwards, Tony holds his hands up in front of his chest, keeping his expression perfectly neutral. “Okay…” he says carefully. “I think you might need a break.”

Tears prick at Peter’s eyes and he instantly regrets snapping at his mentor. “No, no, I didn’t mean that! I’m s-sorry, ’m fine…” he says. It would probably sound a lot more convincing if his breath would stop hitching.

Tony lifts an eyebrow. “Yeah, no, I’m pulling rank here,” he declares. “It’s break time.”

“No!” Peter protests. His hands fumble back on the table for the wires.  “I gotta finish it! It’s so close, it’s just—” He cuts himself off as the images of the suit swim before his eyes, his head throbbing. “I, I need to finish…” he concludes lamely.

“Peter, just stop,” Tony says with an exasperated sigh. “You’re no good like this.”

Somehow, those words are the catalyst. Peter feels every emotion he’s been bottling up for the past week erupt inside of him. His breath hitches and his head pulses. “I, I know I’m not,” he manages to say, “but that’s why I gotta… gotta finish, then maybe—”

“Jesus, kid,” Tony breathes out. “That’s not what I meant at all. I was just saying—”

Peter cuts him off. “No, I… I know…” Tears are sliding down Peter’s cheeks now. He runs a hand through his hair, shoulders shaking. “’M sorry.”

Tony’s eyes are a mixture of concern and confusion. “Whoa, hey, what’s going on here?” Tugging the edge of his sleeve over his thumb, Tony uses it to wipe a few of the tears off his cheeks. “Talk to me.”

Honestly, Peter doesn’t even know where to begin. The frustration of his current project, the lack of sleep, his grades, the scholarship…

“I just… I-I have a headache.”

Peter doesn’t know why he says it—the pressure in his skull doesn’t even rank very high on his list of concerns at the moment, yet the simple physicality of it somehow makes it the easiest thing to admit. He rubs the back of his hand at his eyes, but his vision is still so blurry. “Can’t really see straight…”

Tony’s brows knit together. “Is it a migraine?”

“N-No,” Peter says between choked sobs. “Or... I don’t know, I don’t th-think so?” Despite never having had a migraine, he’s pretty sure that’s not what this is. The pain isn’t anything exceptional—it’s just that he can’t seem to stop crying and he’s so fucking tired.

“Either way, I think you’ll feel better once you’ve got a couple painkillers in you,” Tony reasons. “C’mon, let’s get you sorted out.”

Peter shakes his head in weak protest. “No, ’s’okay... “

“Nope,” Tony says, his voice a little more firm. “Trust me on this, you don’t want to work in a lab right now. It’s bright, and loud, and honestly, you’re a bit of a safety hazard at the moment.”

To Peter’s horror, a fresh wave of emotion comes over him and he finds himself properly crying now, his frame wracking with each sob.

“Okay, okay, alright…” Tony murmurs, and Peter feels a hand awkwardly patting him on the back.

It’s all so idiotic, Peter decides, standing in Tony’s lab, crying over things that are completely his own fault and a headache that isn’t even that bad.

“You’re okay, kid,” Tony whispers. “Just breathe.”

As Peter struggles to pull himself together, he feels the hand switch to rubbing circles on his back. It moves up to the back of his neck, but halts as soon as Tony’s fingers touch Peter’s bare skin.

Tony frowns. “Do you have a fever?”

“Wh-What?” Peter’s throat is thick.

“You’re really warm,” Tony explains. He flips his hand around to press the back of his fingers to Peter’s skin, first on his neck, then on his cheek. “Yeah. FRIDAY, can we get a read on that?”

“100.7, boss,” she supplies.

Tony hums a bit. “Yeah, that’s about what I thought…”

Peter doesn’t get it. “B-But I’m not sick,” he protests. “Just—”

“Exhausted,” Tony finishes for him. “When’s the last time you had a full night’s sleep?”

Sniffling, Peter gives a non-committal shrug.

“Yeah, that’s not good, kid,” Tony huffs. “Take it from a guy who has a bit of experience in this area—not sleeping enough will seriously mess you up.”

With a hand on Peter’s back, Tony starts gently ushering the kid out of the lab. Peter doesn’t even bother protesting anymore as he shuffles along, his lip quivering. He figures he’s caused enough trouble today.

Tony deposits him onto the couch in the living room and Peter immediately curls up against the arm rest, squeezing his eyelids shut in an effort not to think about what a fool he’s making of himself in front of his mentor. It doesn’t help much.

“You just chill out for a minute here, okay?” Tony says quietly, draping a blanket over Peter. “I’m gonna get you some meds.”

Peter nods and Tony gives his shoulder a final squeeze before stepping out.

The second he’s alone, the tears start streaming down again, hot and silent and totally uncontrollable. If he’s not working in the lab, then he really should be studying for these stupid finals, but he can’t bring himself to pull out his flash cards. He doesn’t think he can rest—not with so much hanging over his head—but he can’t work either. Tony was right; he’s just no good right now.

When Tony reenters with painkillers and a glass of water, he doesn’t say anything about how Peter is hurriedly sitting up and scrubbing his face with his hands in a pointless attempt to pull himself together. He just presses two pills into Peter’s palm.

Looking down at the painkillers in his shaking hand, Peter’s stomach twists and he’s suddenly not so sure they’ll be able to stay down. “I can’t. I feel sick,” he admits in a whisper.

With a quiet sigh, Tony perches himself on the edge of the sofa, right beside Peter’s tucked knees. “I think you’re just tired, kiddo. Sometimes that makes you feel a little sick.”

Peter doesn’t say anything so Tony passes him the glass of water. “Here. Humor me,” he says. “If I’m wrong, I’ll pay for the dry cleaning.”

It’s a stupid joke, but the corners of Peter’s lips twitch anyway. “Okay,” he croaks.

Peter slips the pills into his mouth and swallows them down with a sip of water. He’s queasy, but it’s not too bad. He goes to set the cup back down on the coffee table, but his mentor shakes his head.

“Drink the whole thing,” Tony instructs.

Peter obeys. It takes him a couple of minutes, but he manages to get the entire cup down and feels just the smallest bit better for it.

Tony takes the empty glass from his hand and sets it on the table. “Think you can sleep now?”

Peter just shrugs. He wants to—god, he wants to—but he doesn’t deserve it. Not when this is all his own damn fault. His voice is barely a whisper when he speaks again:

“I think I really messed up, Mr. Stark.”

X

Over the next ten minutes, it all comes tumbling out: the job at Delmar’s, the decathlon requirements, the late patrols, his slipping grades, his scholarship, everything.

“I just… I don’t want to change schools,” Peter concludes softly. “I like Midtown. It was the first place I really felt like… well, like I fit in.”

Tony’s been quiet for the whole time Peter was speaking, but now his brow furrows. “Why would you need to quit Midtown?”

Peter blinks at him; isn’t it obvious? “Because the full tuition is eight thousand dollars a semester. Without the scholarship…” he trails off. “I just can’t do that to May.”

A look of relief spreads across Tony’s face. “Is that all? That’s the whole issue?” He huffs out an amused breath. “Done. Consider it paid. Problem solved.”

Peter feels his cheeks flush. He shakes his head frantically. “No, no, I didn’t mean that you should pay! Please don’t do that!”

Now it’s Tony’s turn to blink at him. “Peter. I am a multi-billionaire. Do you have any idea what eight thousand dollars is to me?”

“But you shouldn’t have t—”

“Peanuts,” Tony cuts him off. “I’ve spent more on peanuts than that.”

“But—”

“And by that I mean actual, honest-to-god peanuts,” Tony continues over the kid’s protests. “There’s this company in Peru that slow-roasts them for twenty-one days in a secret spice blend. Happy’s obsessed with ‘em—says they’re god’s gift to mankind. So, for Christmas one year—”

“You can’t pay my tuition!” Peter blurts out.

Tony stops his story abruptly. His eyes narrow at Peter. “And why exactly is that?”

“Because…” Running a hand through his hair, Peter draws in a shuddery breath. “Because… If anyone should pay, it’s me. I-I’m the one who fucked up and lost the stupid scholarship. I should be the one responsible for fixing this.”

“But you can’t fix it,” Tony says bluntly.

Peter’s caught off-guard. “Wh-What? N-No, I just need to get my grades up, and, and…”

Tony’s voice is gentler now. “You can’t, Peter. You can’t get a 2.9 up to a 3.3 by next week, no matter how well you do on your exams. You’ve gotta know that.”

(Peter does know. He’s known for days. He’s always been good at math, after all.)

“So you can’t keep going on like this, trying to make up for what happened,” Tony concludes.

Tears prick at the corners of Peter’s eyes once more. He’s determined not to let them fall this time. “But I deserve it…” he whispers.

Tony shrugs. “If we always got what we deserved, I never would have made it through the 90s.” He huffs out a short laugh. “At least nobody has to bail you out of prison. Same can’t be said for all of us.”

In spite of Peter’s earlier resolve, the traitorous tears slip out anyway. He wonders how he has any left.

Tony sobers a bit. “You’re a good kid, Pete,” he says quietly. “But you’re trying to carry the whole world on your shoulders and that’s enough to break anyone. It’s okay to ask for help sometimes. Even if you fucked up.”

Peter swallows hard. “Okay.”

“So let’s try this again,” Tony says. He makes eye contact with Peter. “What do you need, kid?”

“Right now?” Peter exhales deeply. “I dunno. A nap?”

Tony smirks slightly. “I think we can manage that.”

X

Peter makes it through finals.

All his extra effort and studying does yield some results. His gym grade increases to a B after Coach Wilson grades his two-page extra credit report on the rules of badminton. The trig final is rough, but he pulls in another couple points there, and the art teacher accepts a few late sketches from the unit on perspectivism. With the help of the final exam, he even manages to eek out a C- in Spanish.

When it’s all said and done, Peter’s GPA sits at 3.1.

“That wasn’t easy to do. I’m proud of you, Peter,” May says sincerely. “You know that, right?”

Peter shrugs. “I guess so.”

They’re sitting together at the apartment’s small kitchen table, May’s open laptop in front of them with all of Peter’s end of semester grades displayed. Peter’s eyes drift down from the screen to the table where a check for eight thousand dollars signed by Tony Stark himself is staring back at him. He sighs.

May plants a quick kiss on the top of her nephew’s head. “Well, I know so. So for now, I’ll just know it for the both of us.”

Peter strokes his fingers over the crisp paper of the check. Besides covering tuition, Tony has now upgraded Peter’s unofficial SI internship to a paid position—something he says he should have done long ago, given how much time Peter spends working in the lab—and that will allow him to give Mr. Delmar his two-week notice.

He knows he should be grateful, but honestly, it’s going to take him some time to wrap his head around the concept of being taken care of like this.

Getting up from the table, May moves over to retrieve a small paper bag from the counter. “That reminds me—Mr. Stark told me to give you this.” She tosses the bag to Peter, who catches it easily.

Curiously, he opens it. He’s immediately hit with the aroma of exotic spices and roasted legumes. Peter can’t help but grin.

A note inside the bag reads: Enjoy your peanuts, kid.

A/N: If you enjoyed this story, you might also like: 

Viral Wisdom

Go Down Swinging

A Pressing Emergency

Fic Masterlist

[starkerforlife6969]

Starker - Through the eyes of Uncle Ben

“Is he adjusting okay?” Rebecca asks, one of the moms who frequents this park almost as often as Ben does.

“I think so,” Ben murmurs, a small smile on his face. It’s been about a year, and he never really knew Richard and Mary, but May doesn’t tear up when she talks about them anymore, though a long look of sadness pinches her cheeks. Peter doesn’t have nightmares anymore either. They haven’t healed, but they’re doing okay. He turns out to look at the playground where the little boy is an impassioned argument over who gets to keep the ladybug he’s found.

Peter’s only four, but he’s perfect. He’s strong and brave and Ben knows he’s the best of Richard and Mary, and some nights, the early ones especially, that was the only thing that really kept May going. It hurts him to know that she hurts, and sometimes Ben can’t do anything- and his hands shake with how badly he wants to comfort her, but he can’t make her smile. And then Peter ambles into the room with chocolate smeared all over his mouth and a tub of play-dough he can’t open, and then May will smile. And she’ll lift the little boy into her arms and just breathe him in, and Ben can breathe a little easier too.

He loved Peter before Peter was theirs. (Is it okay to say he’s theirs? At first it seemed like he could never be anything but Richard and Mary’s, but as the months go by…it hurts in a good way, May feels it too, Peter is their son). He’s a precious little boy, and he looks so much like May that most people don’t question it.

Rebecca though, she knows.

“He looks really very happy,” she says, squeezing Ben’s shoulder and then heading off to find her own daughter.

Ben hums around a smile, and sips his coffee, watching as Peter and his friend appear to decide to free the ladybug instead.

He ends up a little caught in his newspaper. The crime rate in this city is clawing its way back up into a zone that makes his skin prickle with protective fear over his wife and-and- son? nephew? Son. And when a little voice clears its throat, Ben is yanked out of a reverie of fine print and faced with a stern looking six year old boy.

It’s Howard’s boy, Ben thinks. He reaches for a name...Anthony. Tony. Howard isn’t the most pleasant man, but Maria is nice. Anthony goes to the private pre-school around the corner, the one that May hopes Peter can win a scholarship for someday, given his genius genetics. Ben’s not sure quite how Tony and Peter became such fast friends, not because Peter isn’t friendly. He is. A little too friendly, really. Happy to follow complete strangers if they have a dog or a pretty dress.

Ben’s had to reiterate the concept of ‘stranger danger’ but he’s not sure Peter had really taken it in.

Tony and Peter go to the same junior-playgroup on Tuesdays. Maybe that’s how they’re friends.

Ben looks around and spots Maria on the other side of the playground, muttering angrily into the phone. Ben holds back his sigh. He’s not surprised. Howard doesn’t seem to approve of his son hanging with ‘the riffraff’. God, Ben hates the man.

Anthony though, is a sweet boy. Clever and blind to the differences in people that Howard is so sensitive to.

“Mr Parker!” The boy exclaims, and Ben raises his eyebrows a little, setting down his newspaper in a show of attention. “I have an ‘nnouncement.”

“Ah, of course,” Ben nods.

The boy, decked out in clothing almost obscenely expensive, is holding Peter’s muddy hand. The four year old is beaming up at the sky. Tony clears his throat, and Ben bites back his amused grin. He’s like an adorable mini-Howard. Wait, no. He’s trying to be like Howard. But Tony is better than Howard. Ben hopes it stays that way. “I’m askin’ for your permission to marry Petey.”

“Yay!” Peter exclaims, bouncing up and down on the spot.

Ben has to cover the lower half of his face behind his fingers so he doesn’t laugh in front of the very serious proposal. “I see.” He manages graciously, “and why should I say yes?”

Tony nods thoughtfully, like he expected this line of questioning. “Um,” he begins, rubbing his little fist against his eye, “cuz we love each other, and um, we both like turtles the best.”

“The bestest,” Peter reiterates safely, before throwing his arms around the taller boy and hugging him tight. “Tony is my bestest friend!”

Tony seems to glow with pride.

“Well, that settles it,” Ben decrees, using his newspaper to pat them both on the head. “You have my permission to be married.”

“Yay!” Peter squeals again, and Tony goes all soft and privately pleased, as Peter picks up clumps of grass and sprinkles it over them like confetti.

As Ben gets out of his car and heads into the school, he thinks about things.

He thinks about the fact that his fourteen year old boy, his boy, is kind hearted and good. Peter is a good person, deep in his bones, Ben knows that. And yet this is third time this week he’s being called in for some kind of disruption.

Maybe this private school scholarship wasn’t the best thing for him. But May had been so insistent. Ben doesn’t see what’s wrong with the other schools...

Peter’s been different the past two weeks. Off. He’d come down with a bad flu, and then just…he’d changed.

When he gets in, Peter is sitting in one of the chairs outside the headteacher’s office, his head hanging down and radiating shame.

Ben softens at the sight. He sighs, and sits beside him. “What happened?” He asks, surreptitiously looking for signs that Peter might be hurt or bruised. There’s been lots of that in the past. It had made Ben so angry, but then it had stopped, and he’d heard that Tony Stark had been suspended for three weeks for breaking the noses of four boys.

Ben had given Tony an extra serving of dessert the next time the boy was over.

“It’s so stupid,” Peter hiccups, wiping his face with his sleeve and shaking his head, “I didn’t mean to- they were just-“

“Mr Parker?” The headteacher says, opening the door, and beckons the two of them inside.

Ben’s anger swiftly returns. He doesn’t like bullies. He won’t tolerate it, and even though it’s hard to see his Peter as a bully, the facts don’t lie. Peter had humiliated that jock in front of everyone, and shattered school property and punched him so hard that he’d almost fractured his cheek.

Ben’s not totally sure about that last one, even though the head teacher insists that’s what happened. Peter doesn’t know how to punch. He doesn’t have any bruising on his knuckles either.

When they get out of the office, he looks down at his boy and he shakes his head as Peter curls in on himself in disappointment. “Peter…what’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”

“Uncle Ben,” Peter chokes out, eyes sparkling with tears, “I didn’t mean to-“

“This is the third time this week, Peter! What’s happening? Your Aunt is sick with worry-“

“It was an accident,” comes another voice, more like a snarl, and Ben turns to see Tony. The sixteen year old is almost as tall as him, and he hooks Peter by his backpack straps into a tight hug. Peter sobs into his shirt and Ben feels lost in a way he hasn’t felt since May lost her sister and he couldn’t do anything.

“Tony,” Ben shakes his head, grasping, “what’s happening? What’s happened to my boy?”

Tony cups the back of Peter’s head and gives Ben a glance so mature Ben almost can’t believe it. “He’s going through something right now, Mr Parker,” Tony whispers, voice hard but even, “we’re working through it, and when he’s ready, he’ll tell you, but for now…He’s your kid. You know him. Cut him some fucking slack.”

Ben doesn’t take parenting advice from sixteen year olds, but Tony essentially raises himself, and Peter is clinging to him for dear life and-

Ben likes Tony. And he just wants Peter to be happy.

So he does.

(It’s the right thing to do)

Age comes before he can do everything he wants to do. Celebrate his sixtieth wedding anniversary with May. Spoil a grandchild. Walk Peter down the aisle.

As his breath becomes more laboured, and his vision becomes more blurry, he thinks he very nearly did that last one.

He feels selfish, ruining Peter’s big day- only a week away, by drifting towards the light. Will the boys postpone it? He hopes they won’t. It’s his time. There are times for things. Like Peter getting bitten by a radioactive Spider when he was 14 years old. That happened for a reason, though Ben can still remember through fits of laughter the way that he and May had sat across from Tony and Peter at the kitchen table and wondered if they were on drugs. Like the time Peter had said that he and Tony were more than friends, and Ben had nearly choked on his coffee but May had rolled her eyes and asked how he hadn’t realised already.

There are times for things.

For the first time ever, Peter calls him dad. Croaked out and heartbroken.

Ben’s got the best medical care money can pay for, and he doesn’t need to ask to know that Tony, the ever-present pillar of stability in the corner, 24 and already a force to be reckoned with, is the reason why.

May never leaves his side.

Ben smiles at that, and thanks the lord that he’ll be wearing his wedding ring for eternity.

“When I wake up,” he says to her, as she weeps, “I’m going to see you.”

From a place of bliss, somewhere above and beyond, he watches the wedding.

It was postponed by a year, but maybe it’s better this way. May gets to walk Peter down the aisle, and Tony is crying, and so is Peter, but they’re good tears.

“Come on,” Richard says, a smile in his voice, ageless and happy, “I don’t think we’ll want to watch the honeymoon.”

Ben laughs at that, and takes Mary’s hand.

Somewhere, down there, Peter throws a clump of grass in the air as confetti and smiles, and then he turns to the sky and whispers words of gratitude to his lost parents.

All three of them. 

[trashcanmarvelfan]

Aftermath (A Peter Parker Introspective Fic)

Summary: Peter dealing with the effects of Endgame, pre-FFH.

Warnings: ENDGAME SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Word Count: 1821.

Author’s Note: Just processing my post-Endgame feels and working out some headcanons. Takes place post-Endgame, pre-Far from Home.

Requests are always open!

Cross-posted at AO3.

Peter Parker sighed as he slammed his locker shut. It had been a month since the snap that had wiped out half of the universe (including himself) had been undone, a month since Thanos had been defeated for good, a month since… Well. He swallowed thickly. At least it was Friday. He could go home and pretend like a world without Tony Stark didn’t exist for the next 2 days.

His phone buzzed with an incoming text:

Pepper really needs to see you. It’s important.

Peter rubbed his eyes. Happy. He had been texting Peter for the past few weeks:

- Hey, kid, how you holding up?

- Haven’t heard any Spider-Man updates, you patrolling Queens?

- Need you to come by the office when you get a chance.

- Pepper has something to discuss with you at Stark Industries.

- Really need you to swing by S.I. when you can.

He clicked his phone off without responding and walked toward the exit. Mr. Delmar’s bodega was still around, maybe he could stop there–

He burst out the door and stopped in his tracks.

Happy stood waiting in front of the usual nondescript black town car. “Hey, kid. You haven’t been answering my messages.”

“Well, you know…” Peter adjusted his backpack. “Been busy.”

Happy gave him a ‘I know BS when I hear it’ look. “I need you to come with me.” He opened the back door of the car and waited.

Peter sighed. Might as well get this over with. He climbed in.

To his immense relief, Happy didn’t try to make conversation on the way to Stark Industries. He merely parked and escorted Peter up to the lobby leading to Pepper’s office. “Wait here,” he instructed.

Peter thought about bolting, but the nearest train station was at least 3 miles away and he didn’t have his web shooters on him; and besides, even if he had had his web shooters he was sure that the last web fluid he had made had long since disintegrated.

A few minutes later, Happy returned. “Go on in.”

Peter walked down the hall to Pepper’s office and knocked on the open door.

“Hi, Miss Potts – Or actually I guess it’s been Mrs. Stark for a while now, huh?” he said, shuffling his feet nervously. “You, uh, you wanted to see me about something?”

Pepper walked out from behind her desk and pulled Peter into a tight hug. “Hi, Peter,” she said softly, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.  “Come on in.” She gestured over to the couch.

Peter took a deep breath and sat.

“How are you holding up?” Pepper asked, taking a seat next to him.

Peter shrugged, keeping his eyes trained towards the floor. He had a feeling that Pepper already knew - that he had woken up screaming almost every night since that final battle. That every time he closed his eyes he saw the light fading from Tony’s ARC reactor. That he never got to tell Tony just how much he meant to Peter - that Peter saw him as more than just billionaire Tony Stark, as more than Iron Man, as more than just someone to admire and look up to. Tony was much more than a mentor to Peter - he was the closest thing Peter had to a father since Uncle Ben had died. And now he was gone.

Pepper looked at him sympathetically. “Listen, Peter… I’ve arranged for psychiatric and grief counseling for all of Stark Industries’ employees who were affected by the snap.” She placed a gentle hand on his arm. “Including our interns. I already talked it over with your aunt and principal, and you’ll be given an excused absence on Monday to talk to Dr. Lansing.”

Peter blinked back tears. “Ok,” he said softly. “Do they– do they know? About me being Spider-Man?”

Pepper shook her head. “She knows that you were working personally with Tony before the snap and that you two were very close. Anything else you tell her is up to you.”

She took a deep breath. “Peter, the main reason I had Happy bring you here today is because Tony included you in his will.”

Pepper got up and walked over to a table, picking up a silver case and placing it on the coffee table in front of Peter before sitting next to him again.

Peter hesitated. He knew what that had to be.

“Go ahead, open it.”

Peter glanced at Pepper before placing his thumb against the sensor. The case beeped once before opening to reveal a new red and black Spider-Suit.

“Tony had made this before the Snap and was hoping to give it to you once you graduated from high school,” Pepper explained. “After the Snap he kept updating it in case we were able to bring everyone back.”

Peter just stared at the suit. “He… He kept working on this? Even after… after I…” He trailed off.

Pepper nodded. “And there’s something else. Education was extremely important to Tony, so in his will he founded the ‘Stark Industries Educational Scholarship for Technological Advancement of the Sciences’, or the ‘SIESTAS’ grant for short.  It offers full tuition including room & board, plus a stipend for books and food to a student studying technology or science to the college of their choice, with an option to renew the scholarship for a masters’ program & Ph.D. as well.” Pepper paused. “He named you the recipient.”

“Wow, that’s– that’s amazing.” Peter was at a loss for words. “Thank you.”

Pepper smiled softly at him. “Tony talked about you a lot, you know.”

Peter looked up at her in surprise. “He did?”

Pepper nodded. “I wish you could’ve heard him sometimes. He was so proud of you and everything you’d accomplished.”

Peter’s eyes filled up with tears again. He sniffled. “And I always thought Mr. Stark barely tolerated me,” he joked weakly.

Pepper shook her head. “You were so much more than just a mentee or an ‘Avenger-in-training’ to Tony, Peter. Even though he never got to tell you, he loved you like a son. You made Tony realize that he wanted to be a father, and for that I’m forever grateful because although Tony may be gone, the best part of him lives on. So thank you.”

She picked up a framed photo of herself, Tony, and the little girl that Peter had learned was Tony and Pepper’s daughter, Morgan. Pepper caressed the photo softly before setting it back down. “Before Tony and I found out that we were having a girl, he said that if we had a boy, he wanted his middle name to be Peter.” She paused. “So instead, Morgan’s middle name is Petra.”

Peter’s Greek wasn’t too advanced, but he did at least know that ‘Petra’ was the feminine version of ‘Peter.’ He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Pet– Petra?”  

“Tony wanted you to know just how much you meant to him – to us.”  Pepper took Peter’s hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You’re part of this family, Peter– you and May both.”

She stood. “I’m so sorry I have to cut this short - I have a meeting with the shareholders to go over some projects for next quarter. We’re going to do an official announcement of the SIESTAS grant at a later date with a presentation and everything, but I did want you to know about it as soon as Tony’s will was read.”

As if on cue, Happy knocked on the doorframe to Pepper’s office. “You ready to go, kid?”

Peter nodded numbly.

Pepper hugged him once again.

“Thank you, Mrs. Stark,” Peter replied.

“We’re family, Peter. You can call me Pepper.” She released him. “Don’t be a stranger, alright? I mean it. Morgan’s been wanting to meet her surrogate big brother properly.”

Peter smiled sadly. “Thank you, Pepper.”  He picked up the case with his new suit and followed Happy out of the office.

Once Peter arrived home, he opened the case and took the suit out to examine it.  Stark tech had always been way more advanced than most technology, but this… Tony definitely had made some upgrades to Peter’s suit in the past 5 years.

Peter hadn’t worn his Spider-Suit since the day the Snap had been undone and they had defeated Thanos. Even though they had won, he still felt like he had failed because he couldn’t save Tony.

He sighed and hung the suit up.

He was working on his homework when May arrived home. “Hey, Peter!” she called out.

“I’m in here, May!” Peter called in reply.

May knocked on his door then opened it a crack. “Hey, how was your day?” she asked.

“Fine,” Peter replied. He bit his lip. “I, uh… I went by Stark Industries after school today. Mrs. Stark - I mean Pepper - she wanted to see me.”

“Oh?” May asked nonchalantly.

“She mentioned that she arranged counseling for Stark employees, and I… I have an appointment on Monday.”

May visibly relaxed. “That’s wonderful, Peter. I’m proud of you for accepting help.”

Peter nodded. “But that wasn’t all she wanted to talk about. Mr. Stark… Tony… left me some things in his will.”

“He did?”

“He gave me a 4-year scholarship to any college I choose, with the option to renew the scholarship for a Master’s degree and Ph.D if I choose to pursue them.”

May’s eyes widened. “Wow, that’s so generous.”

Peter gestured toward his new suit. “He also left me a new Spider-Suit.”

May put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “He obviously cared a lot about you.” She paused. “Have you tried your new suit on yet?”

Peter shook his head. “Not yet. I…” His voice broke. “I just miss him so much, May.”

“I know, sweetie,” May replied, sitting next to Peter on his bed and wrapping her arms around him. “I know.”

She held on to Peter for a few more moments. “Just remember that those we love are never truly gone, ok? Tony would want you to continue on.”

Peter sniffled.

May kissed the top of Peter’s head and stood. “Now, I’m going to go make us some dinner and you join me when you’re ready, ok?”

Peter nodded, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

May exited Peter’s room and shut the door behind her.

Peter sat quietly for a few more minutes, just staring at his suit. Finally, he thought, May’s right. Tony *would* want me to continue on. The world needs Spiderman.

He stood and picked up his new suit. Here goes.

He stripped down to his boxers, pulled the suit on, put on his mask, and pressed the spider on the front of his suit to fit it to his frame.

He took a deep breath as he waited for his AI, Karen, to boot up and greet him.

Instead of Karen, however, the updated AI voice was one he had never expected to hear again.

“Hey, Underoos.”

[tonydadisbestdad]

Dear Peter Parker - 10 - The Connor Project

Peter ParkerxReader

Dad!Tony, Mom!Pepper, Brother!Connor

Word Count: 1,977

A/N: OFF HIATUS WILL POST ONE CHAPTER A DAY FOR THE NEXT 9 DAYS! Enjoy!

Previous Next

(not putting pics for the rest of the chapters but if you have one you think would go well please send it to me and I’ll add it!)

“Peter, what do you want for dinner tonight?” May called from the kitchen.

When he didn’t answer she went back to his room.

He was rushing around trying to get ready. Peter was beyond nervous. It was your first date.

“Pete,” May started again. “What do you want for dinner?”

“I’m not eating here tonight, May, sorry,” he grabbed his keys off his desk and slipped by her out the door. “I’ll be back later.”

She almost stopped him but by the time she registered what happened the door was closing behind him. She released a sigh, “I love you.”

Her statement was left unanswered.

Upon arriving to get you Peter was greeted by Pepper and a big hug.

“How are you, Peter?”

He nodded, “I’m good Mrs. Stark, yourself?”

She pat his cheek. “I’ve been spreading the news about the Connor Project around the company. Everyone thinks it was a fantastic idea. I think we should have a big event here to help you raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, what do you think?”

He spotted you out of the corner of his eye and smiled at you. “Uh, yeah Mrs. Stark, I think that’s an awesome idea. Um, I’ll let MJ know and we can talk about it soon, Y/N and I have plans right now though…” He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

You smiled and went over to him. “See ya later, mom,” You grabbed Peter’s hand and pulled him away from her. Hoping she wouldn’t try to keep talking about this with him. She was not going to ruin your first date with him.

“Have a nice time,” Pepper said, a soft knowing smile on her face.

You leaned against his side as the elevator sunk to the bottom floor.

Peter smiled and wrapped his arm around your shoulders. “So, dinner and then I was thinking we could go walk the highline?”

You smiled back at him, “That sounds great.”

And it was, Peter felt like you were a piece of him that had been missing. The two of you fell into things so easily. It wasn’t awkward like first dates could be, it was sweet and comfortable.

“Tonight was so needed,” You said as Peter walked to to the elevator when your date was over.

He nodded. “Yeah, it was great,” he swung your conjoined hands. “Do… do you wanna do it again?”

Instead of answering you stopped him and pulled him into a kiss. You wrapped your arms around his neck.

He smiled into it and kissed you back. His hands slipped to your lower back. He never wanted to stop kissing you. If only he could live without oxygen so he could.

“Does that answer your question,” You whispered against his lips.

He nodded, his nose brushed gently against yours. He kissed you one last time for the night before leaving.

Both of you hoping the night went fast so you could see each other in the morning.

As Peter made his way home, he checked his phone. There were more than 20 messages collectively from Ned and MJ. They were all about the Connor Project. He sighed and started to read through them. After such a great night, he really didn’t want to deal with it at the moment. However, he knew MJ and Ned would just be mad at him if he ignored them, so he answered them as he continued on his way home.

The following morning Peter told MJ and Ned about Pepper’s idea.

Immediately, MJ loved it. She couldn’t wait to talk to the woman and plan everything out. It would be great and bring so much awareness to the project.

So, that afternoon the three went home with you to talk to her.

And well, since MJ was the one discussing the majority of stuff with Pepper, he decided to sneak away to see you. It wasn’t until Pepper was calling you for dinner that he realized he got so caught up in you he forgot about his friends. He sent them a quick text, a lie, that you needed his help with something and time escaped him. Well, time did escape him, but hanging out with and making out with you was not helping you with something.

When he arrived home, it was a bit later than he should have been getting home. His aunt was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for him. His dinner plate left cold on the other side of the table.

“Hey May, sorry… Was working on a project with Ned and MJ,” He lied. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t just tell her the truth.

“Is that really what you were doing?” She asked, not believing him.

Peter frowned and glanced away from her. “Yeah, why?”

“I’m not sure when you started to lie to me so badly, Peter. I give you a lot of freedom. Yet, you keep lying to me.”

“I-I’m not, May, really!” He knew he wasn’t being very convincing.

May inhaled deeply, trying to calm her nerves, she was upset, she had a right to be. She just wished Peter could talk to her. “I saw the video of you, giving a speech about Connor Stark. Why did you lie to me about knowing him?”

He knew he’d been caught. There was absolutely no denying it.

“How are you gonna get out of this one?” Connor asked beside him now.

“May you’re hardly ever around!” He snapped at her. He hadn't meant to. It was just true. “I got over Uncle Ben just fine without you when you had to start working more and get a second job! There was no reason to tell you about it because what difference would it make?!”

The tears that filled her eyes broke his heart. He knew he shouldn’t have done that. He knew that she was doing everything she possibly could for him. He wasn’t even her blood, and yet she had taken him in and loved him as if he was her own.

“I-,” Peter started, realizing his mistake. Yeah, Uncle Ben being murdered still hurt like hell. Especially because he did have to do that alone, she was concerned about having enough money to still live that everything got swept under a rug. They grieved and it was immediately like it hadn’t happened. It got shoved down inside of him. It really was a reason he hadn’t told her. But it was also because he was still lying no matter what.

She held her hand up to him. “That’s enough, Peter.” She regretted what she had to do since Ben had passed every single day. She just wasn’t able to show that to him. She had a responsibility to keep him safe, and to take care of him. She couldn’t do that if they were poor and living on the streets. She had to prioritize somewhere, and now she knew that she should have put a little bit more priority on Peter. Instead she sent him to a shrink that wasn’t really helping him.

Peter just turned and went to his room, Connor following close behind him.

The following day was saturday. He slipped out of the house early to go meet MJ and Pepper to work out their big event. Which mostly turned into Peter just nodding along to what they were talking about.

Luckily for MJ you were out with some other friends, so Peter didn’t sneak off this time. However, as they were leaving she started on him. “Glad you had some great input about this stuff today, Peter.”

He frowned at her. “What-“

“You don’t really care do you?” She asked, as they exited the building. She stopped in front of the doors though. “All you seem to care about is Y/N.”

“Of course I care about this!” His voice rose an octave. “I’m the one that started this remember?”

“Yeah and after your speech you haven’t done jack. If you weren’t going to participate you didn’t need to bother coming with today. But I’m sure you were just hoping your girlfriend would be there.” She turned on her heel and went in the opposite direction than he would be going.

“Harsh,” Connor said.

Peter sighed and went home. It was only a few hours before he was going to hang out with Ned.

Only, he never showed, because Tony texted him inviting him to dinner.

When he arrived home he noticed he had a slew of messages from his friend.

They started out as worried, but they gradually became angrier and angrier.

When Peter tried to call him, to offer some kind of excuse, he was sent to voicemail.

The following day didn’t get any better for him.

He was just about out the door when May stopped him.

“Where are you going?” She asked. “Did you forget you were supposed to meet with my friend to start applying for scholarships today?”

Peter winced, he had.

“Peter, you know I don’t have the kind of money to pay for you to go to college. You’re too smart to not go, you have to get on this,” May snapped at him, her frustration, she knew was getting out of hand quickly. However, she couldn’t help herself.

“I have to help MJ and Ned with Connor Project stuff,” He lied. He wasn’t sure why. He easily could have texted you and told you he had to help his aunt before he could hang out. But, frankly he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to start doing that stuff yet. He still had to apply for colleges first. Those he wouldn’t hear back from until next school year!

“Of course you do,” May said. “Don’t worry about any other responsibilities you have.”

“Who says I even want to go?” Peter snapped. “I need to get in somewhere first anyway and applying before that costs money itself, May! Something we don’t have! I don’t see why you’re pushing this so much!”

“I’m worried about your future, Peter! I-I can’t take care of you the rest of your life. You need to be able to get a good job! You can get in if you push a little harder and get a head start.”

“No one asked you to do that! It’s not my fault my parents died! I’m not your kid May! I want to live my own life! I can’t do that if I have to get a part time job, and keep straight A’s, and work on the Connor Project, and apply for schools and scholarships! I didn’t ask for any of that!”

She was stunned into silence, with no response, she quietly nodded and turned to go to her room.

“I’m going to Ned’s,” Peter said as he stormed out the door. So unsure of where that outburst came from.

Not even knowing why he was trying to hurt the person that cared the most for him. He was beyond grateful to May for having raised him for so long.

“Come on, Pete,” Connor said, as they made it to the street. “That was unnecessary. Go back in and apologize.”

“Stop telling me what to do,” he told Connor. “I know it, I shouldn’t have done that! I don’t even know why I did! But I guess it’s because at least with your family, they aren’t constantly getting upset with me about every little thing. I just can’t deal with that right now.”

Connor sighed. “Look, my family isn’t great either. If they were don’t you think I’d still be here?”

Peter winced and paused on the sidewalk. He stared at the ghost beside him. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” He disappeared, leaving Peter to his thoughts.

He decided it would be best to talk to May later.

Tags: (No longer accepting for this as, again, I’m posting everyday now)

@manchurian-barnes, @marrvelle-fics, @chloe-geoghegan1, @awkwardturtle25, @defenestrate-yourself-please, @3blue-dreams3, @marvellouspengwing, @lesbian-jesus-jr, @valiantelk, @godhateskyleigh, @thepowerstoner, @lou-la-lou, @marvelc00kie35, @lynnskata, @httpmcrvel. @peterparkerscamera, @buckysendoftheline

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (37/?)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

Masterpost

Chapter Thirty Six

May never got to talk to Peter about the sneaking out the next morning because she somehow managed to sleep past her alarm and by the time that she was up Peter just wasn’t there anymore. At least there were signs that he had been there for breakfast which meant that he was okay. May figured that knowing that was enough to keep her sane. Still, she resolved to bring it up the moment he got home from school because enough was enough. Peter was only fourteen. There was no reason for this behavior.

May had even wanted to text him to make sure he came home straight away instead of running off with Ned. She didn’t only because it felt overbearing and Peter didn’t need that.

Either way, it didn’t end up mattering because instead her doorbell rang changing all of her plans. May didn’t know what to think when she opened the door and Tony Stark stood there looking oddly like he didn’t know what he was doing there.

May had never actually met Tony Stark, but there was no denying that he was something to behold. He was handsome and good looking in a way that only someone famous could be which was a little infuriating if May were to be honest. May didn’t know if she would have been able to tell that Peter was his son just from looking at him but there was definitely a resemblance.

“Hi, Mrs. Parker,” Tony said with a charming smile, “Or should I call you May? That might be better, actually. And of course you know who I am but Tony Stark. It’s nice to finally meet you.” He extended his hand out to her and it took May a moment to reach out and shake it.

“Come in,” she said and stepped back.

Tony followed her inside and seemed to look around the place with some interest. May was glad that she had spent the morning doing some cleaning as she closed the door and saw Tony look around. His eyes didn’t seem to settle on one single thing.

“I know I’m just showing up which isn’t — is Peter home?” Tony said, his face turning away from a picture on a small round table.

“Not yet,” May said. “He’s probably only just getting out of school now. Should be here soon.  I’m not entirely sure that you should be here when he does get home. Mr. Stark, why are you here?”

Tony let out a breath. He seemed nervous, even though he was trying to hide it which was oddly satisfying to see because this was not a man that should ever be nervous and yet he was. “Well the truth is that I think it is time I meet Peter. And there’s this scholarship kind of like an internship that I think he is the perfect fit for.”

May didn’t know what to think. “And it will mean that he will spend time with you,” May said and let out a sigh.

She lead him towards the living room and Tony sat without being prompted. He folded his hands over his legs and he didn’t seem to know how to sit still. He was like nothing that May had ever expected and yet she could see the good in him too. The reasons for why so many people looked up to him.

Tony nodded. “Yes. I haven’t mentioned it to him because things just tend to fall through for us but--”

May had to take a moment. She walked towards the kitchen and pulled out some of the date loaf that she had baked the other day and warmed it up. Just last night she had been thinking that Peter might need to finally meet Tony and here he was offering her a way and giving her  a way to keep Peter busy. It might mean that the whole sneaking out conversation wouldn’t need to happen. But then, another conversation might. She didn’t know what Tony intended, exactly, but if they did meet then who Tony was to Peter -- that secret would be revealed sooner or later.

“Would you like some tea?” May asked, poking her head out of the kitchen.

“Sure,” Tony said, “this is a lovely home, you know, and I have to say that I will always be grateful for you taking Peter in as you did. From his letters alone I can tell that he’s gotten exactly what he’s needed.”

May brought out tea and the date loaf, setting the tray down on the coffee table.

“I don’t think he could be the kid he is without you,” Tony said and reached for a piece of the date loaf.

“I really don’t know what to say. It’s unfair to take all the credit when Mary and Richard loved him so much. Ben, too. It wasn’t just me. It couldn’t be just me -- and it’s more than just nurture. He’s -- he has your genes too. I wish Ben had gotten a chance to meet you.”

May had sat down on the same couch as Tony and he reached out and pat her knee in some sort of comforting way when Ben’s name came up. She was reminded of how much Tony had done for them when Ben died. From the house cleaners, to the funeral, and even just the letter he’d written to Peter. It was money, she knew, but there was some thought behind it -- and Tony did care. She could see it in the way that he couldn’t quite hide how nervous he was and how Tony had never once tried to overstep. In a way May admired that in him -- admired that he could do boundaries.

“Peter really looks up to you,” May said, “and it’s hard to not say that it has influenced him. Probably more than most because he takes after you. The question is, how are we going to handle telling him that you’re his father?”

Tony looked unsure, as if he didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do. May didn’t know what she wanted either. No, what she wanted was for Peter to be safe and happy and it didn’t seem like keeping him from Tony would accomplish those things anymore.

“I don’t -- I don’t want to lie to him,” Tony said. “But I think that at the moment the internship will have to be enough. But I will tell him and soon, as soon as it makes sense to. I just don’t want to just throw that at him right away.”

May nodded. She supposed that it was for the best to let Tony make that decision on his own. Maybe he felt he had to know Peter a little better before the truth was out and May didn’t think she had a place to say when Peter should learn the truth anymore. That was up to Tony to tell Peter and May would stay out of that decision just like Tony had taken a step back every time that she and Ben didn’t allow a meeting to happen.

While they waited for Peter, May asked after Pepper and she could tell from the way that Tony spoke about her that they were no longer together. Somehow they had managed to keep that out of the press and May was impressed because it always seemed like everything Tony did was reported on. Although, she supposed that lately he had been keeping his nose to the ground. He didn’t even really seem to be a part of The Avengers seeing as he hadn’t been present in Lagos. His meeting Peter now was probably the best time.

For a good while they made small talk and Tony drank tea and took small bites of the date loaf. May really had forgotten how awful it had come out. At least Tony seemed to want to be polite about it.

Eventually they heard the key at the door and May saw the way that Tony almost seemed to freeze as the door swung open and Peter entered holding some sort of junk and with his headphones in his ears so distracted that he actually walked past them without even taking notice of his surroundings all the while talking about a car outside and then he stopped---

It was almost comical how alike the expressions on their faces were. Upon a close look at them together she could see the resemblance. They had the same eyes and a similar way of being expressive. Tony covered up his shock with a smile, but Peter’s mouth still hung open a little. He pulled the headphones out one at a time and his eyes never ceased to be blown wide as he looked at them. It was as if he feared blinking because it might mean that Tony Stark would disappear.

“Mr. Stark,” Peter said, his voice a little higher than normal, and Tony laughed.

“Hey, kid,” Tony said and May was afraid for a moment that Peter was going to just pass out from the shock but he seemed to get ahold of himself.

“What are you — how are you —”

“Mr. Stark is here about a scholarship,” May said.

Peter frowned, looking more confused than ever and May didn’t blame him. They really were springing this on him. But it needed to happen. They needed to know each other and Peter needed to know the truth whenever Tony wanted to tell him.

“Yeah,” Tony said and seemed to be finding his footing again. “The September Foundation. But, hey, May, mind if I talk to him alone?”

May nodded almost at once and Peter just seemed a little too dazed to know what to say even as Tony stood up, walked towards him and placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder almost with a little hesitation. Peter looked up at him and May could see how nervous he was. She could also see how much they really were father and son.

“So your room? Come on, we can discuss all the details.”

“Uh -- sure,” Peter stuttered out.

Chapter Thirty Eight

[acdbengal]

Takeaways from Tallahassee — Whole lotta hemp

Whole lotta hemp

Federal progress, pilot projects, new legislation, and recent key state hires clarify that hemp is what’s happening.

Complementing this culmination: The newly launched Florida Hemp Industries Association.

The new association will focus on connecting individuals and companies to the Sunshine State’s burgeoning hemp industry. It’s spearheaded by Jeff Sharkey and Taylor Biehl, two lobbyists who’ve made their dent in the state’s pot landscape — primarily through their Medical Marijuana Business Association.

You got a friend in me: Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has made it crystal clear she’s a friend of the hemp industry.

Because other positive developments fill the backdrop of the hemp landscape in Florida and beyond, the launch likely couldn’t come at a better time.

Industrial hemp can be modified to produce a negligible amount (less than 1 percent) of THC, the compound known for producing psychotropic effects. Legislation in 2017 allowed universities to research the plant and its viability in Florida. Florida A&M University already has identified seven hemp projects for study.

President Donald Trump in November signed a farm bill that officially removed hemp from the feds’ list of controlled substances, paving the way for broader research programs.

And just this week, Senate Agriculture Chair Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican, filed a bill that would create a state hemp program overseen by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, meanwhile, has made it crystal clear she’s a friend to the industry. Her newly hired cannabis director Holly Bell also appears eager to direct resources to hemp.

Coming up, the usual assortment of tidbits, leftovers and not-ready-for-prime-time moments by Danny McAuliffe, Drew Wilson, Jim Rosica, Michael Moline, and Peter Schorsch.

But first, the “Takeaway 5” — the Top 5 stories from the week that was:

Take 5

DeSantis acts on school safety — Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling on the state Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate school districts throughout the state regarding their school safety practices. “The best tool that we have to bring accountability but also move forward in a better way is a petition that I filed today with the Florida Supreme Court for a statewide grand jury,” DeSantis said this week. He hopes the grand jury will have more powerful subpoena power than that held by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission.

DeSantis wants school choice scholarship — DeSantis recently called on the Legislature to create an “Equal Opportunity Scholarship.” The money would help students wishing to attend private and charter schools. DeSantis envisions the scholarship would cover 14,000 students, at about $6,500 apiece. He suggested possibly funding the program through tax credits and tax revenue, though he ultimately is leaving it up to the Legislature to decide. “For me, if the taxpayer is paying for the education, it’s public education,” DeSantis said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re going to the district school that you’re zoned for, or if you’re going to a public magnet or a public charter, if you take the Tax Credit Scholarship to go to a private school, or if you use an ESA for home-school, to me that is all a public commitment to make sure that our kids have the best education.”

Fried hires concealed carry chief — Fried this week tapped Stephen Hurm to oversee the state’s concealed-carry permitting process. Hurm is the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, who competed in the Democratic primary for Governor last year. He will serve as the director of the Division of Licensing at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The division, among other things, screens for and doles out concealed-carry permits. “[Hurm’s] experience implementing successful risk management strategies makes him the careful, competent, and qualified leader the Division needs as we move forward to remedy the past failures,” Fried said. A lawyer, Hurm boasts more than 30 years of experience working with or advising law enforcement, including stints at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Hurm most recently worked as director and researcher at the Florida State University Institute for Law Enforcement Research and Policy.

House moves pot bill — Following last week’s contested Senate panel hearing of legislation that would permit smokable marijuana for patients, the House this week discussed its own version of a bill that seeks to accomplish the same. The House Health & Human Services Committee forwarded the bill, which would require smokable marijuana to be sold as a pre-made, filtered cigarette in Florida. The Senate’s current version of the legislation requires a patient to get a second opinion before he or she could get medicinal cannabis for smoking. DeSantis has given the Legislature a March 15 deadline to pass legislation allowing patients to smoke the medicine.

Arming teachers gets momentum — The Senate Education Committee in a party-line vote forwarded a bill that in part would allow public teachers to carry firearms. The legislation (SPB 7030) was approved 5-3 by the panel. The bill was modeled off recommendations from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, a fact-finding panel created to study best security practices following the attack last year. The measure picked up support from Republicans, while Democrats voted against it.

Instagram of the Week

‪The best mascot in the land is @rockyd_bull ! Thank you for your support in Tallahassee too! #USFDATC #makinglifebetter #hornsup #GoBulls ‬#rocky #mascot #greenandgold

A post shared by USF Health (@usfhealth) on Feb 14, 2019 at 3:26am PST

Moody highlights progress on rape kit backlog

Attorney General Ashley Moody thinks there’s an end in sight for the state’s backlog of untested sexual assault kits.

Pointing to a report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that showed 7,137 were tested by the end of 2018, Moody called the progress “encouraging news.”

An end is in sight: Atty. Gen. Ashley Moody says there’s been headway in reducing the number of untested rape kits the state has in backlog. Image via TCPalm.

“I want to thank the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their hard work and great progress to eliminate the backlog of previously unprocessed sexual assault kits,” Moody said, while also giving kudos to her predecessor Pam Bondi.

During the 2016 Legislative Session, Bondi worked alongside the Legislature to secure $2.3 million for testing, along with other related expenditures.

Israel hearing update

Lawyers for DeSantis and suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel will convene in Tallahassee this week for a case management conference ahead of Israel’s Senate hearing.

According to public notice, that means Senate Special Master Dudley Goodlette will discuss with counsel “scheduling of the prehearing conference, hearing, and any matters arising during the case management conference that require scheduling.”

Israel’s day in ‘court:’ Suspended Sheriff Scott Israel is preparing for his Senate hearing, with a management conference hearing this week. Image via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The meeting is set for 1 p.m. on Tuesday in Room 401 of the Senate Office Building.

DeSantis suspended Israel shortly after taking office last month. The Republican Governor replaced Israel with former Coral Springs Police Sgt. Greg Tony.

Israel has requested a hearing from the Senate.

Guardian follow-up

Lawmakers are expected to address some significant changes to the school guardian program put forth by the state last year.

Sponsoring one under-the-radar change is state Sen. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat. The bill (SB 136) would include school guardians in the state’s false personation statute.

Punishing imposters: Darryl Rouson is looking for harsher punishment for people who impersonate a school guardian. Image via Colin Hackley.

If signed into law, it would make impersonating a school guardian a third-degree felony.

The measure picked up swift and unanimous support in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee earlier this week.

AFP-Florida awards Ocala lawmaker

Members of Americans for Prosperity-Florida this week paid a visit to state Rep. Stan McClain to thank him for his free-market policymaking.

The reason: He’s the latest recipient of the organization’s Champion of Economic Freedom Award.

Free-market champion: Stan McClain has been honored by Americans for Prosperity-Florida, earning an A+ on last year’s scorecard.

McClain, an Ocala Republican, earned top marks (A+) on last AFP-Florida’s 2018 scorecard. The organization, a liberty-minded think tank, grades lawmakers each year.

“I appreciate this recognition and the good work AFP-Florida does,” said McClain. “There’s no question that prosperity and economic opportunity could quickly be short-circuited with the wrong policies in place.

“It’s an honor for me to support legislation that keeps government in check and allows the free market to flourish, and I look forward to continuing to work with AFP-Florida and other like-minded folks as we head into the 2019 Session.”

McClain recently was selected to serve as a deputy majority whip in the Florida House.

FDOT’s Daytona 500 message

Heading to Daytona Beach this weekend? The Florida Department of Transportation wants you to take advantage and notice the extra messaging made available for one of the city’s premier events, the Daytona 500.

“Extra signage will be in place along various roadsides to help with wayfinding,” said a news release from the state agency. “In addition, real-time traffic information will appear on overhead dynamic message signs and be communicated on FL511, as well as other traffic apps, including Waze.”

A day at the races: The FDOT is making sure anyone can find the Daytona International Speedway, without having to listen for the roar of the engines.

The agency is working with event staff, law enforcement and local officials to manage traffic before, during and after the NASCAR event.

“Drivers are urged to watch for pedestrians and allow plenty of time for travel,” continued the release. “Safety doesn’t happen by accident.”

The race begins at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.

DEO extends application deadline for Irma relief

Floridians facing housing issues resulting from Hurricane Irma will have more time to apply for federal assistance this year.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said this week that it is extending the deadline to Mar. 29 to register for Rebuild Florida, a long-term recovery pool backed by $350 million in federal funding.

Rebuild Florida “helps repair, rebuild or replace damaged homes,” said a news release from DEO. Communities eligible for funding are highlighted here.

No time like the present: The Florida DEO is extending the application for Rebuild Florida, a long term recovery pool backed by federal funding for hurricane Irma damage.

Priority is given to “those low-income residents who are elderly, disabled, families with children under the age of 18 or persons displaced from Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands who are permanently resettling in Florida as a result of Hurricane Irma or Maria,” the release added.

“We have extended the Rebuild Florida registration deadline to allow as many homeowners as possible to register for assistance, and I encourage anyone who still has damage from Hurricane Irma to visit RebuildFlorida.gov to get help,” said Ken Lawson, executive director of DEO.

Florida Housing to help first-time homebuyers

The private-public Florida Housing Finance Corporation is again launching a federal program that helps finance down payments and other closing costs for first-time homebuyers.

The Florida Hardest-Hit Fund Down Payment Assistance Program will start on March 4.

Floridians in Clay, Duval, Hillsborough, Osceola and Pasco counties will be eligible to receive assistance. The program provides up to $15,000 in aid for first-time homebuyers. It’s forgivable over five years.

The program initially launched in 2010, in the aftermath of the housing bubble burst.

“Statistics show that foreclosures have drastically decreased in Florida and that our state has recovered from the housing crisis,” said Trey Price, executive director of Florida Housing. “This funding will further assist with the continued stabilization of recovering, distressed neighborhoods.”

Enterprise Florida chief attends AT&T ribbon-cutting

Enterprise Florida CEO Jamal Sowell recently participated in the unveiling of the newly renovated AT&T call center in Sunrise.

And as the head of the state’s job agency, Sowell had good reason to be there. It used to house just 40 call center employees. But now nearly 475 call center agents and managers work in the 104,000 square-foot building.

Enterprise Florida CEO Jamal Sowell helps cut the ribbon of a newly remodeled AT&T call center in Sunrise. Image via the South Florida Business Journal.

AT&T expects to add another 200 jobs in the building by the end of this year after another phase of the project is completed.

“Any city in any state would welcome the opportunity to create more than 600 jobs in their community and welcome a state-of-the-art call center,” Sowell said. “This call center is a direct result of Florida’s elected leaders passing good public policies that encourage investment in our state.”

AT&T Florida President Joe York and Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan joined Sowell at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Audubon highlights Gulf restoration projects

A 90-page report from Audubon Florida identifies some projects and programs that would help restore the Gulf of Mexico.

Included in the report: a recommended investment of more than $1.7 billion for such efforts.

“The challenges are huge, but we have an enormous opportunity to save much of the Gulf Coast for both birds and people,” said David Yarnold, president and CEO of National Audubon Society. “We can’t afford to blow this.”

Don’t blow it: National Audubon Society CEO David Yarnold recommends an investment of more than $1.7 billion to help restore the Gulf of Mexico.

Audubon Florida, the state branch of the organization, “identified critical priorities in the Sunshine State to confront challenges including a changing climate, sea level rise, and harmful algal blooms,” said a news release.

“Restoring and acquiring the places in this plan will provide refuge to rare and imperiled bird species while mitigating for the impacts of a changing climate,” said Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida.

The report, “Audubon’s Vision: Restoring the Gulf of Mexico for Birds and People,” can be viewed online here.

Justice reformers to screen ‘The Sentence’

The Project on Accountable Justice and FAMM will host a movie screening of HBO’s “The Sentence” at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Challenger Learning Center in Tallahassee.

An IMDB summary describes the 2018 documentary as an “intimate portrait of mandatory minimum drug sentencing’s devastating consequences.”

Cindy Shank is featured in the HBO film ‘The Sentence,’ which examines the devastating effects of mandatory minimum sentences. Image via Getty/Time magazine.

All interested media are welcome to attend.

Afterward, a panel of leading experts will discuss criminal justice reform. They include State Sen. Jeff Brandes, FSU visiting law professor Carla Laroche, Butterfly Life Journeys Founder Patricia B. McCray, Freedom Partners chairman Mark Holden, and FAMM fellow Matthew Charles.

Some lawmakers, including Brandes, are hoping to pass significant sentencing reform this year through the Florida First Step Act.

Stay together for the kids?

New research from Florida State University suggests family shake-ups might not have a long-term influence on child behavior.

A study led by criminology professor Kevin Beaver found that family changes — namely divorce — can impact a child’s criminal behavior immediately, but such an effect will fade.

FSU criminology professor Kevin Beaver says that family changes (particularly divorce) could have a short-term effect on criminal behavior, but fades with time. Image via FSU.

“Essentially what we found is divorce, broken families or blended families might be detrimental for the child in the here and now, but that impact may erode over time,” Beaver said. “It might not have this long-term effect.”

By reviewing data from another study, researchers discovered that divorce and moving in with a stepfamily did not have a significant impact on a child’s delinquency over time.

Divorce did have a significant, but temporary impact on delinquency, although “we didn’t find substantial changes in criminal behavior in late adolescence or adulthood,” Beaver noted.

Desloge named to FEMA panel

Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge was recently selected to serve a three-year term on the Federal Emergency Management Agency National Advisory Council.

The 35-member panel advises FEMA “on all aspects of emergency management to ensure input from and coordination with state, local, tribal and territorial governments, as well as the private sector,” said a news release from the county.

Safe and resilient: Leon Commissioner Bryan Desloge was selected to serve on the FEMA National Advisory Council.

“There is no higher priority than protecting our citizens before, during, and after disaster, and this FEMA committee will have a direct role in shaping policies and practices to keep everyone safe and resilient,” Desloge said.

Desloge will focus on closing the “all-hazards insurance gap for renter policies” and bettering code enforcement as a member of the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Subcommittee. His term lasts until May 2021.

If you’re not at the table …

Andrew “Andy” Reiss is updating the lunch menu at Andrew’s restaurant.

Folks in The Process frequent the downtown Tallahassee locale. Some are fortunate enough to have menu items named after them.

You know you’ve really made it when there’s an entrée named after you. Photo via AP.

Coming soon: Dishes taking the namesake of Gov. DeSantis and Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, among potential other changes.

“This year’s edition includes new names or titles, including Gov. Ron DeSantis’ DeLicious Salad Bar Buffet and Mayor Dailey’s Caprese Burger,” said a news release.

Cabinet members, legislators, and other city and state officials are expected to join Reiss to unveil the menu at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

Capitol Directions

Source Article

The post Takeaways from Tallahassee — Whole lotta hemp appeared first on .

More Info At:: http://www.acdbengal.com/takeaways-from-tallahassee-whole-lotta-hemp/