Peter Parker was probably the luckiest kid in the world, but sometimes it certainly didn't seem that way. Now was definitely one of those times. He groaned loudly as Flash kicked him in the stomach once more and goaded Parker "Stand up Puny Parker, come on!" And damn did Peter try. It wasn't that he wanted to get hit again but he wanted to be like his Pops. He'd heard all the stories from his Uncle Coulson; his father always got back up and he had been way worse off than Peter. Still despite his best efforts Peter lay curled on the ground and Flash smiled smugly putting his arms out as the crowd of students around him cheered. In the end he was saved by Gwen Stacy. Ah. She was so ridiculously beautiful and smart and he didn't even care about that damage to his pride in having to rely on her to save him from Flash when she had complimented him in class.

"It was stupid... but it was great." He ducked his head, a light blush darkening on his cheeks and he glanced up at her grinning stupidly. "You should probably go to the nurse you might have a concussion." He didn't respond unable to get his lips to form words when she was looking at him like that. "What's your name?" She asked and wow that brought him down out of the clouds; a sting of hurt flooding through him. They'd been the same classes throughout the first two years of high school and she didn't even know his name? Harsh. Well he supposed it was wishful thinking to think she would.

"You don't know my name?" The question slipped out before he could stop it and she laughed quietly.

"No, I know you're name. I just want to see if you know you're name." She said smiling. Peter immediately perked up and he gulped slightly.

"Peter." she waited and he realized she wanted him to say his whole name. "Parker... Peter Parker." He said and she nodded

"Okay good." She turned back to the teacher and their little conversation ended but Peter was just happy they had talked, and maybe a little embarrassed at his lack of social graces. Peter Parker. It wasn't his full name, but it was what he went by at school. His dad's hadn't wanted him to get any special treatment from students or staff because of who they were and only the principal of the school knew the truth. Nope, his full name was Peter Parker Rogers- Stark.

His birth parents had died when he was six years old, he barely remembered them, and his Aunt and Uncle whom had taken him in had died 2 years after in a car accident. Peter had been carted off to a nearby orphanage and his life could have gone a lot differently but somehow he'd gotten lucky.

His aunt Tasha and Uncle Clint used to tell him how nervous Tony was. Peter knew pretty well that Tony hadn't had the best relationship with his own father and he was sure he'd be a terrible one too, but Steve wanted a kid and Tony could never say no to his husband and so he'd agreed to at least go meet some of the brats… er… kids. And they'd met Peter and everyone said it was love at first site, or well sort of. His dad told him that as soon as they started talking he just knew Peter was the perfect kid for them. The rest was history.

Unfortunately Peter didn't think he really lived up to the family name. He got beat up all the time but he wasn't as brave as his Pops. He could admit that Flash scared him a bit. And he certainly wasn't as smart as his dad. He wasn't dumb by any means but he wasn't skipping any grades or anything either. He was just average, and he was sure he always would be; the one ordinary nerd in a superfamily filled with extraordinary heroes.

"Welcome Home Sir." The disembodied voice greeted him as he entered the elevator to go up to the Avenger's main floor. He held his skateboard over his shoulder leaning back against the cold metal wall listening to the elevator music almost snorting when he recognized the dulcet tones of AC DC. His dad must have reprogrammed the elevator music without Pepper's knowledge because he knew for a fact that the fiery redhead would never agree to this.

"Hey JARVIS." He greeted the AI. The elevator dinged and the doors opened Peter was instantly greeted with the smell of spaghetti and smiled slightly as he heard the commotion in the kitchen.

"Tony if you come anywhere near this stove I will have Natasha kick your butt out of the kitchen."

"But Steve!"

"No. Do you remember the Thanksgiving Incident?"

"I was trying to help." He heard Clint snort with laughter. Peter shook his head fondly.

"Welcome home son of Stark." Thor boomed from his seat on the couch where he was accompanied by his fiancee Jane. He lifted his hand in greeting. Tony stuck his head out of the kitchen.

"Dinner's almost ready." He informed him then frowned "What happened to your face?"

Peter brought his hand up to the bruise on the side of his chin having forgotten about it. "Nothing just fell." Tony didn't look convinced. "I'll be right down, I'm just gunna put my stuff away." He lifted his backpack and Skateboard for emphasis and made his way up toward his room before Tony could question him some more.

They had a separate elevator for the Avengers half of the tower, all part of the advanced Stark security system. Each of them had a whole floor to themselves Peter included but he never felt spoiled. Steve had always made sure he worked for any money he earned and had a good understanding of responsibilities. Tony helped too but he was certainly more lenient and Peter would sometimes find an extra 20 under his pillow or in his lunch. He set his backpack down grabbing his camera and taking out the now unusable film. He sighed, what a waste. Peter had a digital camera he sometimes used but there was something about real film that he just enjoyed. Peter searched through the drawers of the desk he knew he had some extra film around somewhere.

His room was cluttered and messy and he rummaged through his stuff trying to locate the missing film.

"Sir, dinner is ready." JARVIS informed him.

"Ok, Tell them to start without me, I'll be right down." He dumped the contents of his nightstand out onto his bed but still no film. He sat down biting his lip in concentration as he tried to think of where he might have put it. His eyes landed on the closet across the room and he shrugged; might as well check.

He never really stored anything on the top shelf of his closet because it just wasn't convenient but he knew there were a few dusty boxes up there and maybe just maybe he'd thrown the extra film in one when he'd been trying to 'clean up' his room, he'd been known to do that on occasion.

The first box revealed nothing a few old toys and dusty books, obviously he had been throwing stuff up there to hide it since he was a kid, but no film. He looked through the other boxes too but there was nothing of interest. He was about to give up when another box caught his eyes. It was shoved into the back corner behind all the others and it looked old and dirty. Peter knew his film wouldn't be in there but he couldn't remember ever seeing the box before and curiosity got the better of him. He reached up tip toeing and pulled it down. He didn't recognize anything in it at first just some old pieces of junk and a leather briefcase. He might not have looked at it at all but two little initials caught his eye. R.P. It triggered something in Peter and he remembered his father briefly holding onto it whispering to him telling him he was going to be staying with his aunt and uncle for a while. Peter blinked looking down at the leather bag and frowning. He picked it up running his hands over it in a sort of daze.

"Your Parents are requesting you downstairs."

"Yeah alright." Peter hummed distractedly moving toward the elevator unable to let go of the leather briefcase as he descended. Peter walked into the kitchen and Steve was just removing his apron and washing his hands; when he turned he stopped. Steve certainly remembered the briefcase and a soft sigh escaped him. After they'd officially adopted Peter the lady running the orphanage had given them a box full of stuff she'd said it had been in his family's will that he have it. Steve and Tony had decided to wait and give it to Peter when he was older but as the years passed they'd forgotten about it.

Tony came in to see what was taking his two favorite guys so long and paused. "Peter… I… we're…" He stuttered over his words as he looked at the briefcase.

Peter hardly ever asked about his family he had such great dad's and he knew it was awkward for them plus he wasn't sure how much they even knew to begin with.

"It was your Dad's. That's all we know for sure. It was left for you with the other stuff in the box. We meant to give it to you when you were older Peter but we just…" Steve trailed off somehow saying they forgot sounded insensitive and he wasn't sure how to handle this. "We're sorry we didn't tell you sooner."

"It's alright."

"No it's not." Steve said but he smiled and hugged Peter. "We don't know much about your birth family Peter, but if you want to know more, we can search around. I'm sure Tony could do some digging."

Peter saw the looks of guilt and sadness on his dad's faces and shook his head forcing a smile. "No. I'm good. You two are pretty amazing Dad's." He told them setting the briefcase down in the corner. "Dinner smells good." He said changing the subject. Steve still looked unsure but Tony smiled and ruffled his hair.

"We better hurry up and join the others before they eat it all." Peter laughed and Steve smiled, thus the briefcase was forgotten by the two superheroes, but not by Peter for some reason it just felt important to him. He loved his family. All of them, and yes sometimes it was intimidating they were the Avengers; Earth's Mightiest Heroes. But here in the tower, in their home they were just his really crazy slightly messed up family.

Peter sat down at the table with everyone.

"I hope the other guy looks worse." Clint said between bites.

"What? I don't know-" Peter tried to feign innocence.

"We all know what a right cross looks like when we see one." And of course Peter should really know better by now. He blushed in embarrassment but didn't answer.

"Maybe I should call the school." Steve said he really hated the idea of Peter being bullied.

"You don't have to do that, I'm in high school this stuff happens." He said hurriedly.

"I could always go down there and show them a thing or two." Aunt Tasha said a glint in her eye and Peter hastily shook his head.

Clint laughed "I pity the poor kid who'd have to suffer your wrath Nat." Natasha smiled and Peter laughed but made sure to specify that all was fine and they didn't have to worry.

Later that evening Peter was alone in his room the boxes had been cleaned up and put back in the closet and he'd looked more closely at the other stuff in the box but the briefcase was the only thing that seemed to draw him in so he'd shoved everything but that back into the box and threw it in the closet too. He stared at the leather bag for a bit longer before getting the courage to open it but not before he locked the door to his bedroom using a mechanism he'd made from his dad's old scraps.

He laid out all the things in the bag. A few pens and pencils, a calculator, a quarter, newpaper clipping, a security clearance badge, and an old glasses case. He started with the newspaper clipping it was his dad and someone else. Curt Conners. That's what the caption said. He was some sort of highly accredited scientist as was his father but it didn't say what they were working on. Next the badge, it was from Oscorp and oh how his dad would hate that. The two while both invested in different types of sciences had never gotten along well. Tony often called Osborn a shark who was too arrogant and conniving for his own good and often put him into the same category as Justin Hammer. Which was saying a lot though Peter didn't know if Tony had the right to really call someone else arrogant. He set down the badge and picked up the glasses case. He always wondered where he'd gotten his horrible eyesight from. He grabbed his contact case and quickly divested himself of them blinking blearily as everything went blurry. He reached for the glasses and pushed them up his nose. The prescription was slightly off but not enough to make a big difference and Peter liked them. Maybe they made him look more like a nerd but he didn't really mind, it made him feel a little closer to the mystery that was his family.

He knew he could ask his dad about it but somehow bringing up his real family made him feel guilty and ungrateful. The sad look on his dad's faces earlier flashed in front of him and he grimaced at the very thought of having to be the reason they looked like that. No, he'd figure this out himself.

He picked up the briefcase about to put the things back inside when he heard it- the slide and think of something. He tilted the briefcase the other way to be sure and sure enough there was that noise again. He was positive he'd gotten everything out of it and he checked again but it was of course empty. He ran his hands over the briefcase looking at it from all angles. He opened the outside flap and ran his hands over the inside and then over the seam there was a soft click as he found a small latch. Peter wondered what all the secrecy was for as he pulled out the file flipping it open and rummaging through all the pages. "Zero Zero Decay Rate Algorithm." He read. There was a lot of notes and equations written in messy scrawl so much like his own. Peter didn't recognize any of it and it would take more than one sitting to go through them all. He heard a knock at his door.

"Peter?" It was Steve. Peter put the folder back in the briefcase and shoved it under the desk along with the newspaper clipping and oscorp badge. Then he stood and kicked the other stuff around so it looked like it was just part of Peter's messiness.

"Hold on." He sat down on his desk and clicked the button to unlock the door. "Ok unlocked." He said and Steve opened the door. He regarded Peter for a moment.

"The glasses are new."

Peter paused and blushed as he forgot he was wearing them. "Oh yeah I just found them in that box" He shrugged.

"They look good on you." Steve sat on the bed and peter swiveled his desk chair so he was facing his Pops. "Listen Peter, I know it's been really tough for you, like it is for any adopted child…"

"It's fine Pops." Steve gave him that look and Peter stopped talking

"I just want you to know that me and your dad, we don't want you to think you can't come to us. We love you no matter what and if you want to know more about your parents that's ok we don't think it's a bad thing. I wish you hadn't had to go through so much sadness when you were so young but I don't regret a moment of our lives with you. You're an amazing kid peter." Peter smiled and Steve did too. He nodded toward the computer screen behind peter where a picture of Gwen was magnified. "She's pretty."

Peter blushed and Steve ruffled his hair on the way out. "Hey Pops?" Steve stopped halfway out the door and looked back at Peter. "I'm glad you and dad adopted me." Steve smiled and nodded before closing Peter's door. "Clean your room!" He yelled out as he walked away.

"It is clean!" Peter waited until he heard the elevator ding before he continued with his research looking up his dad and Curt Connors finding out what they working on together. He read the article about his parents plane crash and Conner's paper on genetics. One thing was for sure Peter needed to meet this man.